(Re)Affirming the power of poetry
This week's naming of a new U.S. poet laureate reminds us how this literary form can foster wonder, understanding, and uplift in a society seeking genuine connection.
Visitors at Everglades National Park in Florida congregated around the "You Are Here" poetry installation at its unveiling on Jan. 31, 2025.
Courtesy National Park Service
This week, the Library of Congress named the 25th poet laureate of the United States. Amid the high-speed and siloed flow of internet-based information and entertainment, and the rapid decline in reading for pleasure, this announcement might seem anachronistic.
But for newly named laureate Arthur Sze 鈥� who, as a young man, abruptly transferred out of an undergraduate science program to study poetry 鈥� those very factors point to why poetry is both relevant and restorative.
鈥淚t helps us slow down and deepen our attention; it helps us uncover, discover things we didn鈥檛 know and things we didn鈥檛 know we already knew,鈥� he said in a talk at the Library this spring. More than that, Mr. Sze said, 鈥淧oetry speaks to our deepest selves and connects us all, and it also speaks to the exigencies of our time.鈥�
These include political and social divisions, as well as economic and environmental pressures that are straining bonds of democracy and community. Today鈥檚 poets are engaging with these issues and directly with the American public, offering pathways to uplift and connect.
For instance, just-retired Poet Laureate Ada Lim贸n鈥檚 signature project, 鈥淵ou Are Here,鈥� created poetry installations in seven national parks, to prompt reflection and conversations among visitors. Philadelphia-based Trapeta B. Mayson started the toll-free Healing Verse Poetry Line during the COVID-19 pandemic to inspire and support. It鈥檚 still going. Similarly, Poem-a-Day, set up by the Academy of American Poets, is distributed year-round via email, web, and social media.
A line from Mr. Sze鈥檚 poem, 鈥淩ift,鈥� captures the spirit of these interchanges: 鈥測ou followed the thread of poetry out of a maze into sunlight,鈥� it reads.
Such poet-public connections underscore the innate human appreciation for language that inspires new ideas and fresh insights 鈥� characteristics that have applications beyond the arts, in the spheres of business and politics.
Forbes magazine quotes an executive who sought poets to serve as managers, seeing them as 鈥渙ur original systems thinkers,鈥� able to wrest simplicity from complexity. The Harvard Business Review has pointed out that poetry fosters 鈥渁 more acute sense of empathy鈥� and creativity among managers. Not least of all, it noted, poetry can help teams be 鈥渋nvested with wonder and purpose.鈥�
Former laureate Lim贸n echoes the sentiment. For her, the Associated Press reports, the work of a poet is 鈥渢o not lose the amazement, not lose the wonderment at the world.鈥�
Mr. Sze, her successor, takes the conversation a next step. 鈥淧oetry is the essential language,鈥� he has said, 鈥渢he finite that puts us in touch with the infinite.鈥�