Nine Reasons Why You Should Read Poetry More Often – Part 2

Learning new languages opens new horizons

“But I don’t understand poetry”, someone once said to me. Of course, you don’t understand it. If I spoke to you in German, would you understand me? You would, but only if you spoke the language. If you don’t understand poetry, it means that you don’t speak the language of poetry. Because, poetry is exactly this: a language that helps us to express ourselves. Nothing more, nothing less. So, if I convince you here that is worth reading poetry more often, you might consider learning it.

 Learning languages opens new horizons. The more languages we speak, the more we enrich our ability for expression. Fortunately, our world, as we experience it inside this human wrapping, offers us a remarkable variety of languages that use different tools. There is the language of sound harmony in music, the language of color harmony in painting, the language of word harmony in poetry, the language of movement harmony in yoga…  A spiritual searcher should always seek to learn new languages and new ways of expression.

Regarding the language of poetry, it is worth making at this point two important remarks:

  1. A) Those who consider the language of poetry difficult to understand are not wrong.  Unfortunately, this is a reality and those to blame for this reality are some poets of specific eras. The experimentation in modern poetry, as well as the experimentation in modern art in general, often leads to obscure results of a doubtful quality. Just go to a gallery of modern art and you will know what I am talking about. As a result of such experimentation, everyday people have been alienated from poetry and stopped understanding it. The audience of poetry has been reduced. Poetry has become a product that is written by poets for poets. But it shouldn’t be like this. Poetry, as well as philosophy, should be spiritual tools that accompany the spiritual journey of all people.
  2. B) Poetry in our times is often offered mixed with other arts. Have you ever commented “what a poetic movie” after watching a film? Have you ever enjoyed the lyrics of a song? In those cases you have tasted poetry mixed with other artistic flavors. Therefore, you should not think that you don’t have any contact with poetry at all or that you don’t understand it. It is not so.

Make your dreams more poetic

 Make your dreams more poetic. Metaphorically and literally. Does this need further analysis? I don’t think so. Everyone can understand the importance of dreams. Dreams foster us. Dreams help us to retain a hope for the future. We are surrounded by banality… by triviality… So, you can imagine what a huge catastrophe this would be if even your dreams became prosaic… trivial… ordinary… Wouldn’t you feel trapped and without an escape?

 There is nothing more fascinating than poetic dreams. Dreams full of imagination, dreams full of adventure. What do you dream about when you go to bed? What do you dream about when you wake up in the morning? How do you escape from your trivial reality? Another prosaic day begins in a boring office and no matter how much you want to change the mean reality that you experience for years, you don’t have the power anymore because you have even been deprived of your ability to dream… to dream poetically.

Poetry influences the way we think, the way we see things, the way we dream. Poetry is like a dream and a dream wouldn’t be a dream without poeticness. Do you feel like a prosaic person? Have you ever been blamed that you are a prosaic person who everything he/ she says, everything he/ she does or everything he/ she dreams about do not differ much from the ordinary? If so, then undoubtedly you need more poetry in your life.

Imagination is an escape

 This is a reason for reading poetry that is related with the previous one. Still, it differs. Poetry fosters the imagination and imagination is an escape. In reality, the imagination is one of the most important mental tools (if it can be characterized so) that have been given to us. It takes imagination to perceive the beyond us. It takes imagination to shape a work, a creation, something that didn’t exist before. It takes imagination to shape your life in the way you have always dreamed.

 New Age theories such as the theory of creative visualization refer to the important role that imagination can play in changing our external reality. Regardless of whether you believe or not in positive thinking, etc, there is one thing that you would never doubt about. That imagination is a creative power beyond any imagination! For this reason, anything that can foster our imagination is necessary in our lives. And poetry can foster our imagination possibly more than anything else.

You need inspiration

 Poetry activates the imagination, we have analyzed this already. Poetry makes our dreams more poetic. We have already talked about this. Poetry inspires. And this relates to all previous reasons together. And inspiration is so much important. Without inspiration you cannot make art. Without inspiration you cannot live like a life artist.

 Poetry sensitizes. There is the concept of “militant poetry”, which wrongly has been connected with specific movements or ideologies. According to my opinion, any authentic poetry is also militant. Regardless of being surrealistic and dreamy or idealistic. Regardless of whether it speaks about love or human rights violations and environmental problems. As long as it is capable of sensitizing the reader about a personal, social, environmental or universal problem, then it can be considered as militant poetry. And since it can sensitize, it can also inspire. It can inspire for artistic creation. It can inspire for activism. It can inspire for a change in your personal way of seeing things. For a change in your way of life.

It is like a beautiful girl dressed in veils

 Well, yes! This is how I visualize poetry and that is why I have fallen in love with her. She is the perfect companion. She only talks when she should. And when she shouldn’t, she hushes. She comforts me when I am in black. She has never hurt me. She is not a trying person. She only wants tο be loved and she does not require exclusiveness. She is happy just by being a small port for you to return.

 But when you return, she wants that you give yourself entirely to her. She wants you to leave everything else behind. Bothers and troubles. Worries and anything that burdens you. And to surrender yourself in her love. But exactly this rewards you. Because when the time comes and you need once more to undock from your little port, you will feel stronger and fresher. Full of energy and optimism. Because you know that she will always be there, waiting for you to return. To return when you will be again in need of her. When you will have missed her.