Words have power, we see it in their diction, the dialogue between two characters, the imagery of a landscape, and of the phrasing of a sentence. Words have the power to transport you to another world, and also ground you in the present. Words create a connection between the author and the reader, two people who share experience and emotions but have never met and have completely different lives, only connected by words on a page. Most recently I’ve felt this connection while reading poetry. I just finished reading Rupi Kaur’s new book Home Body which focuses on healing from the inside out, focusing on the mind, memories and loss. I felt connected to her words even though we have completely different lives and have had completely different experiences. When people find common expreces it makes them feel less alone, that makes reading more meaningful.
When I read the words of Robert Frost and the way he described landscapes and nature, I am able to see all the beauty of the world through his eyes even though he lived centuries before I did. When I listen to a Taylor Swift song and her lyrics reflect how I am feeling in an artistic way, I no longer feel like what I might be going through is strange or wrong, but that others feel the same things I do. Poetry is like looking into a person’s soul, where they produce their deepest emotions and thoughts in lyrical and artistic ways. Reading poetry makes me feel less alone and more understood.
I also think that it’s incredibly important to read stories that are completely different from your own, about different cultures and different lives. Because if you live in a bubble of people who think, talk, and look like yourself, then how are you ever going to grow, change, and become more open minded? That’s why I enjoyed Rupi Kaur’s book so much. Her poems paint a picture of her life, and of all the hardships and joys. How her culture has shaped her life in many ways which gave me the perspective to respect others who are different than myself, and to also realize that just because they have different experiences doesn’t make them any less valid. I also think it’s incredibly brave of her to share her work of vulnerability to the world, and hope that someone out there appreciates her writing as much as she does. Reading poems over quarantine has inspired me to write some of my own, but I’m not ready to put them out into the world yet. My dream is to publish them one day and that they find a soul who needs to hear those words, and helps them to feel more connected and less alone, just as Rupi Kaur’s words did for me.
People think that poetry is some big mystery, a puzzle to solve, a riddle to decipher. That there has to be one right answer to the meaning of that poem, but that’s not how poetry works. Poems are meant to be interpreted in many different ways because every person reading them is different. That’s what gives poetry its power, the ability for one piece of writing to mean millions of different things, to millions of different people. That’s how writing connects us, though common experiences. So the next time you’re feeling alone pick up a book, magazine, or poem, and realize that someone out there was feeling the same way you are, and that you are never truly alone.