We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
April 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of National Poetry Month, an annual celebration of poets and poetry. Launched in April 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month reminds the public that poets not only play an integral role in our culture but that poetry matters.
Say the word poetry, though, and many cringe, connecting their aversion to school room experiences that required dissecting a poem for its hidden meaning. The image from “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins of tying a “poem to a chair with a rope and [torturing] a confession out of it; . . . beating it with a hose to find out what it really means” comes to mind.
As an encouragement to think more positively about poetry, we might consider how music is an accessible form of poetry that most of us appreciate. Because the musical quality of poetic language is a balm for stress and hardship, music and poetry are the ingredients for creating a healthy emotional state.
The lyrics of songs like “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” by Riley Green provide an example of how poetry invites personal connections. Younger audiences will likely relate to the sentiments expressed in these lines: “I wish high school home teams never lost / And back road drinkin' kids never got caught.”
Those lines and others in Green’s song invite us all to think about our regrets, losses, or yearnings for a better life. In essence, his poetic lyrics invite us to acknowledge loss.
By causing us to reflect on what is gone or what we’d like to have back, Green’s nostalgic tone reminds us that grief is the price we pay for love. Following the death of a loved one, the pain effectively keeps us focused on ourselves and the unique relationship we had with the person who is now gone forever from our earthly lives. It is hard to cope with our own feelings as we traverse the minefield of new, raw grief. It is harder yet to acknowledge the profound loss and separation that others feel in the aftermath. However, because we get to define how they stay, the people we lose never truly leave.
With these features, Green’s song reveals what the American Psychological Association calls post-traumatic growth and what Holocaust survivor and Viennese psychiatrist Viktor Frankl called “tragic optimism.” When we experience something traumatic, it’s often impossible to find our way back to where we once were, and maybe we’re not supposed to go back. Because life has no rewind button, we have no choice but to move forward and to find that someplace new out there waiting, a place where only we can go to rest and think and remember.
Speaking in rhythms and connecting sound to sense, Green takes us to the past where we may recall things we value or favor—whether that be good manners, good music, or the flavor of a preferred beverage or food. We might connect wishes to those values. These wishes become the foundation for action. When we realize what we want, we can be proactive and pursue our desires. Although we may not be able to bring someone or something back, we can look past the tragedy of death and loss to find reasons for hope and happiness. Without ignoring the realities of challenge and struggle, we seek comfort in memories. Cultivating tragic optimism helps us weather a crisis and perhaps even grow from it. After all, a wish can motivate us, provided that we don’t wallow in the grief of our loss but instead put in the necessary work to fill the emptiness with something productive.
During this silver anniversary of National Poetry Month, we might look to poetry—with its rich imagery that values voice and story—as a language that enables us to talk about life with fresh, new vision. Speaking in rhythms, poetry pares away unnecessary wordiness and presents life in intimate or shocking ways. It layers meaning and offers fresh or radical perspectives. Inviting both an artistic and an intellectual experience, poetry allows the reader to savor sounds and to ruminate about meanings.
Perhaps because of these reasons, National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with millions of readers, students, teachers K-college, librarians, families, and poets, marking poetry’s important place in our lives.
The words of President John F. Kennedy, spoken in a 1963 speech honoring the late poet Robert Frost, may best emphasize the importance of poetry in American society as critic, commentator, and champion:
“When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgment. The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state.”
