Will a poem a day keep the anxiety away?

According to the National Association for Poetry Therapy, the use of therapeutic poetry has been used since primitive rites, where shamen would use chants to ensure the welfare of an individual or the whole tribe. Poetry’s rhythmic patterns, much like music, can illuminate powerful nonverbal reactions within one’s self and help alleviate any stress.

Poetry can curate a balance between jobs, life and school because it puts a voice to their anxieties. Poetry gravitates emotions to the surface, while assisting in the resolution surrounding prioritizing family, friends, work, education and leisure activities.

Taking the moment to read a poem can help a person pause, reflect and possibly experience more happiness, which can also help calm one’s mind and still one’s soul.

Four contemporary poems to ease the daily worries.

1. “Here and Away” by Neil Hilborn

Neil Hilborn is the only slam poet on this list and he also has a book called “Our Numbered Days,” which features this poem and most of his current works. Listening to him speak “Here and Away” can send chills down one’s spine because of the raw emotions in his voice. The beginning of the poem seems rather suicidal and melancholy but the tone changes when he says “But isolation is not safety, it is death. If no one knows you’re alive, you aren’t.” From his perception, hiding away from the world is equivalent to one’s demise before their breath ever escapes their lungs.

Hilborn expresses that you are not alone in your turmoil and he says “so on those days, this is what I tell myself: whatever you are feeling right now, there is a mathematical certainty that someone is feeling that exact thing.” It is hard sometimes to remember you are not the only one who has struggled and suffered because it tends to eat you alive. The best ways to fight anxiety and fear is to let the world know you are here, to let someone know you need guidance and support.

Towards the closing of this poem, Hilborn acknowledges that everyday will not be easy, but that does not mean it is the end of the world. He says “So please, if you want to continue existing do something. Learn to make clouds with only your breath. Build a house, even if every wall leans to the left.” It is vital to understand that you should not dwell or nitpick every mistake you make but appreciate the effort and strength that was necessary to accomplish your goals.

2. “Failing and Flying” by Jack Gilbert

This poem kicks of with the line, “Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.” This refers to the Greek mythology story of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun resulting in his wax wings to melt. This depicts that all people remember from the story is that he fell from the sky and that that he flew. Gilbert wants to emphasize the rise rather the fall of Icarus. Jack Gilbert’s interpretation of flight shows how Icarus achieved freedom from his imprisonment by King Minos.

Gilbert uses diction to convey the importance of remembering the past rather than fearing it. He talks about losing a relationship but focuses on the significance of the good aspects of that relationship. When two people become distant, they tend to focus on the fact that it ended rather than appreciating that it existed. Gilbert’s message is embodied in the lines “But anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”

Anxiety can start when someone loses a friendship or relationship because people tend to grieve the cessation of it. It is important to remember that if something is considered worth doing, then it does not matter if it was done badly or if it ended badly, but that it happened. In order to combat the anxiety caused by sudden loss, one must acknowledge that the bond existed and those happy memories are worth thinking about rather than only the negativity.

This poem depicts that Gilbert wants the reader to break away from any restrictions that fixate on the grim thoughts one might create. Instead Gilbert draws focus to the silver lining, even if the silver lining is on a garbage bag. Concentrating solely on unhappiness puts a negative outlook on life that could inhibit the living of a happy life.

3. “won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton

“won’t you celebrate with me” by Lucille Clifton translates the making of one’s self and how it requires experience, insight and readiness to consider how a person is contoured by their cultural context, influences and languages. This poem begins with an inquiry that reflects both an invitation and a plea. Clifton’s tone is meek and apologetic. The lines “won’t you celebrate with me/what i have shaped into/a kind of life? i had no model” asks the reader to celebrate a “a kind of life” that she shaped rather than the life she’s made. This small distinction allows for the interpretation that the speaker bears witness to the difference between the lives of others and her own emerging self-consciousness.

The process of developing self-awareness is what the poem illustrates as its focal concern. The lines “born in babylon/both nonwhite and woman/what did i see to be except myself?” is an allegorical reference to the legacy of exile and differences she inherited during the civil rights movement. Clifton speaks of the awkwardness of creating a new sense of self-awareness that she was thrown into after the so-called American Dream was taken from her. When confusion and anxiety strikes an individual, they cannot allow it to engulf their identity but build something new from the ashes.

Clifton’s use of language changes and becomes more vivid, inventive and lovely because the speaker gains strength from her experiences and a higher level of confidence in her ability to stand alone.

4. “we are all born/so beautiful/the greatest tragedy is/being convinced we are not” by Rupi Kaur

This poem is from Rupi Kaur’s book “Milk and Honey” that focuses on survival. This book details the experience of abuse, violence, loss, love and femininity.

This poem is about commemorating the beauty each and every person on this planet possess and to throw away all the negativity people may have hurled at you. Anxiety can creep into your mind due to people in your life intent on making you feel worthless, but their opinions of you have no purpose bogging down your potential. It is vital to comprehend that your life is worth living, you are worth it and you are capable of more than you think.

Kaur’s purpose in this poem is to pinpoint the notion that everyone started from the same place, their mother’s womb, and grew into two people’s beautiful creation. A person is more than just the labels people have given and everyone should unsubscribe to such labels. A person’s identity is crafted by the individual, not by the bystanders.