For as long as I can remember, poetry has had a meaningful place in my life. Although everybody’s tastes are different, it is something that is universally part of the human experience. This is why it is in the majority of books read to young children and in every song you’ve ever heard. 

You can skim read the news, an email or a social media post, but you can’t read poetry in a hurry. The fact that I need to slow down in order to appreciate what a poet has to say to me is a major reason I find it to be so beneficial for my mental health.

Take for example the opening lines of A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882):

“Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.”

For me that last line packs a cathartic punch. Having suffered from psychosis, I know all about things not being what they seem, plus it’s often true of day-to-day life. There’s a unique kind of satisfaction in reading truth like this being spoken through poetry.

For the most part in today’s world we consume poetry through song – hence my reference to Taylor Swift in the headline (apologies for the clickbait). This is perfectly fine and it’s how I experience it mostly as well. I’ll never forget the power of a line from a John Mayer song about 12 months after I’d been discharged from psychiatric hospital where he says: 

“You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes,
It brought me back to life.”

It expressed so much to me because I felt like I’d almost come back from the dead when I was admitted to hospital, and the reference to a sunrise filled me with a sense of joy at life and all that lay ahead.

For what it’s worth, I recommend reading poetry as an activity which is beneficial for anyone’s mental health and especially if you are recovering from an episode of anxiety or depression (or both).

When I sit and read a poem, I am engaging with it through my body, mind and spirit. My body because I need to be still. My mind because of my attention on the words. And my spirit because of the way the rhymes and other literary devices accentuate the meaning being conveyed that takes me deeper than what’s happening on the surface of my life.

Like I said at the start, everyone’s tastes are different when it comes to what poets and poems move them, but poetry is part of who we are as humans. I know that reading, reciting and even writing poetry is a good thing for my mental health and is always time well spent.

If you’re going through a difficult time, some poetry might be just the thing to get you out of a funk. 

If Shakespeare can’t help, maybe Taylor can.

Check out my book Beating Hospital Grade Depression and Anxiety on Amazon or download the audiobook for free here!

Image by Rosa Rafael on Unsplash