Words Of Wisdom: Why Reading Poetry Makes Us Happy

Explore the impact of poetry on our well-being. Discover how the beauty of words can uplift your spirit, inspire joy, and foster a deeper connection to yourself and the world around you. Learn how to incorporate poetry into your daily life for lasting happiness.

Transcript

My favorites are Pushkin.

This will probably only work if you read in Russian.

I love Rilke.

Great in translation.

One of my meditation students got me this 10 years ago.

I love this little book,

A Year with Rilke.

Really,

Really deep,

Mysterious,

Really moving poems.

The Guest House is my favorite.

If you want something wacky,

John Ashbery.

Poet in New York.

He passed away pretty recently.

Totally wacky.

Totally different use of language.

He'll make you feel like your mind is exploding,

But in a really beautiful,

Aesthetic way,

And I recommend him.

I love Louise's book.

She just passed away.

So much emotion.

So raw.

So honest.

Such a beautiful person.

She was writing out of Boston.

She was writing out of New Haven.

She was in my area a lot.

But definitely pick up this book.

I think you would enjoy it,

And it's good,

I think,

For beginner poets.

My favorite poet,

In the English-speaking world at least,

Is Mervyn.

Not necessarily this book.

Any book by Mervyn.

I love The Rain and the Trees.

That's a beautiful name for a book.

The Rain and the Trees by Mervyn.

Pick that up.

He just moves my heart,

And he's so deep,

And he's also a meditator.

He's also a Buddhist.

I love Pablo Neruda,

The Captain's Verses.

Super poem.

Wonderful Fernando Pessoa.

Langston Hughes.

You can only tell.

Langston Hughes is absolutely amazing.

This is a library book.

I just started flipping through it,

And I had to take it home,

And I'm going to return it.

Amazing,

Amazing poet.

E.

E.

Cummings competes with Mervyn for my favorite poet in the English-speaking world.

Two Lips and Chimneys.

Lovely name,

Right?

Two Lips and Chimneys.

And then finally,

Mary Oliver.

I recommend this particular book,

Devotions.

Mary Oliver just connects you to nature,

Connects you to yourself,

Connects you to this joy of life,

Connects you to the fact that you have this moment to live,

And how are you going to live it,

And how are you going to be honest with yourself?

She's a really easy poet to start with,

If you don't read poetry.

So those are some of my recommendations.

Thich Nhat Hanh has a little poem.

Drink your tea slowly and mindfully,

As if your teacup is the orbit on which the earth revolves.

I will never drink tea again in the same way after reading that poem.

I imagine that my teacup is that point on which the world revolves in that moment,

And I enjoy that tea.

So there are little details you'll find in a little poem,

And it'll change the way you think about your life.

So poems actually change your reality.

They change the way you see and perceive and hear your reality.

And poems focus our awareness.

In that moment that you're reading a poem,

You are aware.

I believe that poems train awareness differently from meditation,

But in a way that's very complementary.

And most importantly,

They let you see the world in a new light.

When you're heartbroken,

You're not alone.

When you're in love,

You're not alone.

When you're happy,

When you're sad.

When you're confused,

When you just made a mistake.

When you're out in nature,

You're not alone.

And I especially love reading poems in nature.

Like,

Get me a lake,

Get me a lot of grass,

Get me some trees,

Get me some books of poetry,

I'm happy.

So let's look at the word poetry.

The Chinese character poetry is made up of two parts,

Word and temple.

And it's linked to the sacred.

The first poems were all sacred texts.

I want to read you a more modern poem.

This is from William Carlos Williams,

American poet,

Born in 1853.

My heart rouses thinking to bring you news of something that concerns you and concerns many men.

Look at what passes for the new.

You will not find it there but in poems.

It is difficult to get the news from poems,

Yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.

And what I love about William Carlos Williams,

What he's saying is that you will always find the new in poems.

Even if you read the same poem again,

You will find the new in that poem.

A poem is always news.

The news isn't always news.

Like,

The news can be pretty repetitive.

It's like the same thing over and over again.

It can be a lot of fear,

A lot of crisis.

It's been like that forever.

But a poem,

In that,

You can find the new.

You can find a new way of looking at the world.

And men die for lack of what is found there,

For lack of that depth,

That meaning,

That connection.

Every poem,

You're connecting to the poet,

And the poet connects you to life itself.

So I think what William Carlos Williams is saying is that the spiritual energy that a poem offers,

It's nourishing to us on the inside.

And of course,

Our needs are all way beyond the sensual,

Right?

Our needs are way beyond the sensual,

Way beyond the material.

They're also emotional.

They're also spiritual.

Poems help with that.

Compassion meditation also helps with that.

So I believe that poems train mindfulness,

Heightened attention,

Because poems let you look at life in a fresh way.

And poems train compassion.

It's easier to have compassion for another person.

And you can treat a poem like an encounter with another person.

So when you read a poem,

Think about encountering an individual you don't know,

And encounter that poem,

That individual with openness,

With acceptance,

With warmth,

With loving awareness.

If you read a poem with loving awareness,

That poem will blossom.

It'll open up to you.

It will show you its most wonderful sides,

Just like people blossom when they are loved.

And the third thing I teach is self-compassion,

And a poem is self-compassion.

Reading a poem is a huge act of self-compassion,

Because it adds that depth to your own life,

And it's therapeutic,

And it's a way to be present for yourself.

Like the opposite of self-compassion is like sitting there and scrolling through a bunch of social media.

That is not self-compassion.

That is not self-care.

But a poem,

Exploring reality through a poem,

It's a way to share your life in a more deep way.

It's kindness to your senses.

It's kindness to your mind.

It's kindness to your heart.

And I hope that today you will see that,

And you're inspired to read more poetry.

There is something very fragmenting about technology where it disconnects us,

Fragments our intention,

It splits our attention and distracts us,

And then there's something unifying about poetry.

So think of like breaking a pot in many pieces,

And then gluing a pot back together.

Poetry is more relevant than ever.

We need poetry more than ever before,

Because we need to get our attention back together,

And reading poetry helps us do that.

And listening to a poem is like a mindful listening practice.

So you can read it,

Or you can listen to it,

And no matter how you approach poetry,

It's mysterious,

It's transformative.

There's some possibility that occurs in how a poem recontextualizes your own life.

What a poem can do today is not something a poem can do 200 years ago.

For example,

You might read a poem,

And it might lead you to spend less time online on the internet.

The poems written thousands of years ago,

They couldn't do that before.

They didn't have the ability to do that before.

So you as the reader,

As the listener,

You change what a poem can do because you bring it into a new context.

And the poem changes you.

It gives you new power,

New depth,

A new resource of love,

New dimensions to your own life.