from a teaching article I wrote this week:

Like music, dance, theater, and the visual arts, poetry is integral to intellectual and emotional growth. In the words of literacy specialists Jan Miller Burkins and Kim Yaris, “After carefully studying and reflecting on each of the [Common Core] anchor standards, we are convinced that poetry is one of the best sources for complex text, as it offers opportunities to engage and integrate all the standards for reading literature” (http://www.burkinsandyaris.com/poetry-and-the-reading-standards/).

But I don’t just teach poetry because it has educational value. I teach poetry because it pulls me into direct engagement with my inner life while also drawing me closer to other people. As Robert Frost wrote, “All poetry does is try to catch you off guard with reminders of old sights and sounds.” This is one of the many gifts of poetry: it suddenly brings a reader into intimate contact with her own forgotten self.

            This is also why poetry is an ideal medium for working with groups of people who are wrestling with difficult issues. There is a long history of using poetry as a way to support health-care providers, prisoners, veterans, and other people in traumatic situations. More than any other form of literature, poetry offers a compact and efficient way to share emotions and thoughts. It also serves as a model for thinking about the world and our place in it. By talking together about a poem, we learn to trust our own curiosity while respecting the differing opinions around us. In other words, the conversation is a form of civil engagement, and one that is sorely lacking in most of our lives—particularly if we have been living with violence, repression, or ridicule.