What Does Poetry Give You?

Dylan Thomas, 20th century Welsh poet and writer, remarked, “A good poem is a contribution to reality.” 

What do you think poetry gives you, dear reader? I would say it could be anything except money. Yeah, that’s the harsh reality of a career in creative writing. The art of writing poetry is a career which you can’t make a living out of, sadly. But at the same time, I also think that just as novelists can make sufficient money out of selling novels and their respective movie adaptations subsequently, poetry should sell in a similar way. The price of poetry books should be placed higher in order to support poets. Afterall poets work hard too. People should look at the singular quality of the work, not the quantity of pages in a poetry collection. They should commend the fragile, slim art-piece made of words which cost the poet a lot of time to build. Readers are invited by the poet to enter the bewitching world of words and spot the truths that the poet wants them to decipher.

Work of poets should simply garner more appreciation just as that of novelists do. Read this micro-tale which highlights how often poetry is underrated. The sale of poetry books could climb up only if there is an upward shift in the graph of readership of poetry. Now how to augment the readership of poetry is another problem that needs pondering upon.

Many magazines do not pay their contributors and staff writers and make writing freely available to read on the internet. Also, many writers themselves publish their work on Instagram and other places to be read for free. It is just like rendering your services free of charge. In my view if you are not paying for a poet or writer’s labour, then it would be an exploitation of their talent.

If you can pay for other kinds of art (paintings, photographs, pottery, music) and genres of entertainment (movies, series, novels, sports, etc.), then you should probably pay to read poetry too. Fame is not the only thing desired by poets. Money is a necessity of life that no one can deny. Maybe it is time that literary magazines, presses, publishers, and society give poets not only suitable recognition but also monetary compensation that they truly deserve.

I guess I have wandered away from my initial question. Maybe I got carried away, channelling the inner perturbations of a poet. The question again was, ‘What does poetry give you?’ If we try to answer this question, then maybe a list of poetry’s pros will encourage more people to pick it up often and to dust the masterpiece that is poetry, out of the webs and into the limelight. So, think about what have you got out of poetry.

To me as a poet, poetry has given a lot of things. Writing poetry is therapeutic. I feel relieved from my woes and get absorbed in the world of poetry. Writing poems captivates my full attention, drawing me away from all the other things picking on my mind. Poetry brings a smile my face, is a cauldron of serotonin. All vague thoughts leave my mind as I focus on playing with the words. Writing, in general, is an uplifting activity to employ oneself in.

Also, poetry has served as a medium for expressing my views in a condensed form on various topics. I think we (introverts and reticent people) can best express ourselves through the written word, be it prose or poetry. Whatever ideas or opinions are brimming in my mind, I am lucky enough to be able to spill them out on paper and also share them with the whole world. The written word carries my voice far and wide.

Writing poetry serves fresh perspectives on life, nature, things, situations, etc., when you think with a poet’s mind. Monotonous/regular things can appear aesthetic from the lens of poetry. When you become contemplative as a poet, you search in the outside world for metaphors for life. In other words, you perhaps get a deeper understanding of life.

As a reader, poetry has given me entertainment and new, pocket stories of people living in different parts of the world just as novels, movies, and series have. Works of poets and the unusual combinations of words have surprised me and sometimes given me ideas that I had never thought of before. Poems have transported me to places that I’ve never been to in person. I’ve enjoyed delectable visualisations emerging out of the imagery employed by the poets. Sometimes the antithetical placement of images in a poem has given me immense joy. Just as I digest novels, I have savoured poetry as a dessert. 

Reading great poetry gives me a climactic moment of either elation or lament (if it’s a sad poem) and I carry that satisfaction with me and am reminded of that emotion when I happen to recall that particular poem. More importantly, meaningful poetry shows me a truth, carries a message, and calls me to action. It is through poetry that some people register their resistance. Quoting Wu Sheng— “And all I can do is write a poem.”

Poetry holds those unspoken truths, emotions, and experiences (blissful or painful), which the poet conveys in a subtle way, carried beneath the mantle of the words of a poem. The poet, thus, invites me to ruminate upon those realities of life. Poetry, thus, mirrors reality. Hence, poetry delights and teaches. Also, when I resonate with the subject matter of the poems that I read, I no longer feel lonely in my experiences. I feel content in the realisation that it is a shared experience. 

Some people dismiss poetry as unapproachable but for them, I would say, there are those lucid, resplendent poems which are as pleasing as the more subtle ones.

So, I hope this discourse in the defence of poetry will do some justice to what I wanted to convey through this piece in the first place and will also convince you to believe in the value and power of poetry as those before me (the likes of Aristotle and Philip Sidney) have tried to do. 

Poetry means a lot more to a lot of people out there and that’s why I ask you, dear reader, to ponder upon what poetry means to you, so that more people who are not yet advocates of poetry can be urged to visit a bookstore and hold a book of verse in their hands. I will now stop my train of thought here and let yours leave the station as you contemplate the role of poetry in your life. Parting with this thought below:

“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” — T. S. Eliot