Poetry is Essential Human Expression

BY SUZIE WELLS

“I’ll tell you a secret: We don’t read and write poetry because it’s pretty. We read and write poetry because we belong to the human race, and the human race is lled with passion. Medicine, Law, Commerce, Engineering – they are noble and necessary races to dignify human life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love are things that keep us alive.”

– John Keating in Dead Poets Society

Icould editorialize at length on the legitimate power of poetry and other creative works to maintain human sanity and worth through the arguably nonsensical world we currently call home. My good friend Christine says, creative writing is “therapy on the cheap – [as it] forces introspection.” I cannot agree more. is world is vastly di erent than any of us remember even weeks, months, de nitely years ago. ings change.

Some folks say nothing is certain besides death and taxes, but I disagree. I say nothing is certain in life except change and uncertainty. We can either choose to accept that certainty and ex with life’s changes or we can dig in our heels, maybe bury our heads in the sand hoping all will go back to “normal” if we can’t see it. Experts of course agree that the latter is unhealthy, so we must try to be exible as the tides come and go.

Part of human experience is loss, and by loss I mean more than the death of family, friends, and treasured pets, but even loss of a job, the ability to perform a hobby or activity we were used to, our typical schedules or traditions as kids change schools and activities and family time morphs, even loss of a treasured season, etc. We face changes, transitions, “losses,” more regularly than we probably notice. Most of the time, we ex with these transitions without much stress, but sometimes we need a little help.

We may seek solace from our fellow humans, bonding with those treasured friends and family who help us maintain our sanity through life’s seasons. We might seek professional help from fellow humans who happen to be professionally trained to help others such as ourselves through the tough times.

For those of you who are not writers yourselves or who are not teachers who focus English Language Arts curricula on poetry for a few weeks, April is National Poetry Month. Quintessential English teacher, John Keating, played by the immortal Robin Williams in the 1989 Dead Poets Society, encourages his students to truly appreciate poetry’s role in humanity. I relate every time I see this movie, and I beamed when my middle daughter enjoyed the lm a er months of begging for it on family movie nights.

In addition to writing and publishing my own poetry, I teach English at MCC, and every time I incorporate poetry in my curriculum, I rst o en help students connect music lyrics with poetry (because they o en come to my class jaded against nitpicky gradeschool analysis of classics with little relevance to today’s youth). I stress the di erence (and similarities) between old school methods of picking apart an obscure poetic piece and modern analytic methods. We analyze that each individual has their own perspectives and poets express ideas in their own unique ways. is month, I’ve been interviewing an array of Rochester area poets and am so excited to share their thoughts and inspirations with you. Come on our journey through the variations and pure awesomeness that is poetry around Rochester. is month, check out an open mic night or featured reading around town. When we think of supporting local, we o en think of supporting the brick and mortar mom and pop stores selling a wide range of products, but small bookstores and the humble local authors sharing their creative works o en go unnoticed. Over the years, I’ve read at a variety of co ee shops and bookstores around the Rochester area and highly recommend the incredible people at such places who help upli local writers and their creative works. We may not all be Amanda Gormans, but we have our own stories to share with the world. Let’s take a moment and listen to each other’s stories. is April, during National Poetry Month, check out the small co ee shops such as Equal Grounds, Boulder Co ee, Dali Java, and the small bookstores such as Before Your Quiet Eyes, Greenwood Books, Books ETC., Li Bridge Books, and Small World Books that host readings for these fabulous local authors. Support the local business owners and the writers whose creative e orts make the world a bit brighter for all of us. And hey, you may just nd inspiration to write your own stories.

It is simply incredible. at’s what makes poetry e ective. It can be light and u y, what some may call “pretty,” but it may also be dark, jagged, and otherwise quite ugly to some readers’ eyes. Regardless, poetry is genuine human expression. It’s a human being dealing with the ugly of the world, making sense of it for themselves, and sharing that expression with the world in a way more creative than just prosaic journaling.

I love that Amanda Gorman, a young, enlightened twentysomething, brought poetry to the mainstream American scene with her presidential inauguration piece (and has arguably exploded since). Poetry is incredibly powerful. It inspires and incites, it calms and reassures, it brings people together and tears people apart, it brightens darkness and tempers mania, all in the same lines, and always with authenticity sometimes lacking in other modes of human expression. We all express our selves through language, and poetry’s idiosyncrasies allow expression in ways other modes do not or cannot.

Quail Summit is seeking a