Recently a friend of mine who teaches high school English asked me if I had anything to say to high school freshmen about why poetry matters. Well, wow. That’s the $100 question, isn’t it? I had to have a think about that one.

I do think it matters, of course, but my guess is that a lot of people never look at another poem after leaving high school. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong. According to a 2022 NEA study those U.S. adults who read one or more books in a year slipped from 55% in 2012 to 49% in 2022. That same study, however, showed that the percentage of U.S. adults reading poetry actually increased to 9% in 2022 from 7% in 2012.

Here’s Ethan Hawke’s optimistic view of why poetry matters. A beautiful sentiment, elegantly said.

But for me, first and foremost, I just really, really like poetry. I have often said (and had no one agree with me) that poetry is the highest art form. It incorporates language, intellect, emotion, various aesthetics, rhythm, the body. There’s so many worthwhile things going on in a well-crafted poem.

I’m sure you know poetry most likely predates written language, as it was passed down through oral tradition, from generation to generation. Not only did it preserve cultures, but it strengthened communities. Many of the techniques we still use like rhyme and meter made poetry easier to remember.

I believe there’s something at work in the body when we read and respond to poetry. It can be a very physical experience (like music, with which it has a lot of shared qualities). But at the same time, we are stimulating the mind, challenging assumptions, and opening up new ideas.

Some of modern poetry can definitely be challenging, and it scares people away. I blame that on how the critics first responded to T.S. Eliot’s work, which I think was intentionally obfuscating (while not maliciously so, of course). But there is plenty of modern poetry being written that is accessible by the non-initiated (real poetry, I mean, and not Instagram poetry).

Students should know that when they find a poem that they like, they should always read it aloud. It’s the best way to experience poetry. You want to feel the poem in the mouth and in the sound in the air. You want to hear the poem in its intended rhythms and sounds. Or you can lose much of the art that makes a particular poem work.

Students should also know it’s okay not to fully understand the poem. That’s right! Poems are meant to be experienced. One should ask themselves first how a poem makes them feel, not what it means. I listen to so many rock songs that lift my spirits, but for which I cannot decipher all of the lyrics.

So let the poem wash over you. Poetry is usually a quiet affair, read in a quiet space in a quiet voice, allowing the mind and body to quieten and simply welcome in the poem. Doesn’t that slowing down and experiencing good art seem worthwhile?

Poetry matters in the way that any good art can matter. It can move you or change you or illuminate a truth or an understanding – in a way that other things can’t fully reach or in places to which they cannot fully connect. Or it can simply offer the reader a pleasant movement in an otherwise hectic world.