Poetry kept me going when everything else fell apart
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by Karin Olander
In 2019, when I was unexpectedly fired from the only well-paying job I have ever had, my mental health took a huge hit. My nervous system went into overdrive and depression threatened to overtake me as I battled a dangerously low bank account, expired health insurance, and mangled self-esteem. Having dealt with anxiety and depression throughout my life, I knew that I needed to get creative and use all of the tools in my mental health toolbox to keep me calm while I figured out what to do next.
I turned to poetry, an artform steeped in rhythm and breath, to help me self-regulate and cope. Reading or writing a poem allowed me to slow my breathing, collect my thoughts, and recalibrate. Watching others read poetry on YouTube or listening to one of my favorite poetry podcasts distracted me from the endless loop of worry and sadness. Poetry offered me unique insight into my emotions and helped fill the hours. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, I was living alone and relied on poetry more often than ever to help me deal with isolation and loneliness.
Poetry and the science of stress
The science behind stress regulation supports what poetry fans have long known about poetry’s healing powers. Much like listening to music or painting, reading poetry has calming effects on the nervous system, boosts mood, and improves working memory. Studies show that certain indicators of stress can be positively affected by reading poetry that is especially rhythmic. This includes resting heart rate variability — how fast or slow your heart beats throughout the course of one minute, because it isn’t static — and cardio-respiratory synchronization, your breath’s synchronization with your heart. If stress is high, your heart rate variability plummets, but researchers found that after de-stressing with a poem, your heart rate variability goes up. When this happens and your breath is synchronized with your heart, you’re more relaxed and can achieve a “flow state” where anxiety is low and focus comes easily.
Poetry is also an effective tool for emotional regulation and helps combat loneliness and the stress that comes with it. A recent study on the healing power of poetry during the COVID-19 pandemic found that it contributed to “wellbeing, confidence, emotional stability, and quality of life” among those living in isolated circumstances. The study, which included an assessment of participants in virtual poetry writing workshops, showed that people who are suffering from loneliness benefit most from the development of strong social relationships and community, which can be built through sharing poetry with others.
I had a similar experience to those in the COVID-19 study. By participating in a weekly poetry writing workshop through video chat, I was able to not only share my experiences, but also get valuable face-to-face time with other poets, which chipped away at the crushing loneliness of lockdown. I also spent a lot of time during the pandemic reading poems and posting ones I thought were especially beautiful or meaningful to my social media accounts to help me communicate my feelings and subdue my anxious thoughts.
Guille Manchado
Healing through the poetry community online
I’m often sitting in front of a computer or phone, so when anxious or depressed feelings hit, I'm likely to turn to those tools first to help redirect the wave. Fortunately, a lot of poems, new and old, are published online. Poetry online is so popular that it has given rise to writers known as “Insta Poets,” who publish on Instagram and have millions of followers. National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman amassed a huge following when her poem “The Hill We Climb” went viral after the 2021 presidential inauguration. Her poems frequently appear on YouTube and focus on the collective as much as the self, helping us to make sense of the stressful events that shape our world, like climate catastrophes, racism, and the pandemic.
Understanding how we fit into the world and expressing those thoughts through poetry can be a solitary process, but it doesn’t mean we’re alone in our pursuit of it as a healing force. Along with social media and online writing workshops, digital community spaces such as Read Poetry, Button Poetry, and The Rumpus offer videos of poetry performances, prompts, and tips for writing poetry as well as book clubs. These sites connect readers to poetry events, which have seen a resurgence online, especially during the pandemic.
Christian J. Collier, a poet, musician, and educator, attributes this increase in popularity to poetry’s history and its place in the oral tradition as well as its accessibility. On a certain level, he says, poetry is something that everyone can participate in. Now, there are more ways than ever to share our poems and hear new poets, with many open mics and performances happening in digital spaces.
“We have a wonderful contemporary archive of poets who are alive and working today,” Collier says. “You can hear a great poem, find your next favorite poet, check out their work, and even ask them questions on social media.”
For those of us looking to make poetry a part of our daily wellness routine, Collier suggests not only reading poetry, but also investigating the craft of poetry through podcasts such as VS Poetry, TPQ20, The Slowdown, and Poem a Day. No matter how we choose to consume it, it doesn’t take much to include poetry in our lives.
“Your pain, depression, and loneliness are not solely yours,” Collier says in his 2016 TEDx Talk. “By facing your darkness, writing it down, sculpting it into a poem, and maybe lending your voice to it from behind a microphone, you can heal yourself.”
Guille Manchado
Poetry apps: a boon for the soul
Apps for writing poetry can also be a powerful tool for managing stress and trauma while building community. Maiku, an app for writing haiku, provides a focused space for creating poems. Writing haiku, especially haiku about nature, prompts me to slow down and consider my words carefully, which helps mitigate anxious thoughts. With Maiku, it’s easy to move lines of poetry around, choose fonts, add a colorful background, and send as an image or text to social media platforms.
For reading poetry, I use the Poem Hunter app, which contains a database of 1.4 million poems and can even be set to send me a daily poem at a chosen time. Whenever I need to lose myself in the rhythm and imagery of a poem, I search for a poet or poem I like and add it to my favorites list. The random poem generator also helps expose me to poems I may not find on my own, and I have the option of liking and posting poems as images or links to my social media accounts. If I feel like watching a poem being read out loud (by actors!) while reading along, The Poetry Hour app provides access to hundreds of options.
No matter what’s happening in my life, I’ve found that it’s crucial to the maintenance of my mental well-being to spend 5 or 10 minutes a day engaging with a poem. I’ll often read them out loud, because it forces me to pause and take breaths at certain points, and I can quickly pull myself out of panic or agitation and give my nervous system a break. Depression is a trickier bear to battle for me sometimes, as is loneliness, but participating in the poetry community online helps me quell feelings of hopelessness and reassures me that I am surrounded by like-minded people going through similar struggles. Above all, poetry reminds me to love myself, encourages me to be engaged in my life, and acts as a salve for my worry and uncertainty. It’s an indispensable part of my healing in a chaotic and unpredictable world.