The other day a Facebook-friend, Timothy Fox, shared an article in which the award-winning short-story writer Rion Amilcar Scott was asked, “What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received on writing fiction?” He simply replied, “Read a poem daily. It makes your prose more fluid.” Suddenly, I realised that the key to improving one’s writing had been staring me in the face all the time.
Proponents of this idea of ‘A Poem A Day’ argue that this practice is not just for writers, it is for everyone. After all, reading poetry is easy and a poem takes just a few minutes to read. There is a never-ending wealth of poetry available for each age level, nationality or gender in this world, produced by myriad cultures in every possible language, from ancient to modern times.
Poems can change your way of thinking, help you express feelings when you’re struggling for words and also bring in a spot of beauty in your busy daily life, without too much of an effort. Sometimes, one will struggle to understand a poem, but it is in this struggle that we will be challenged to better thinking and greater empathy. And finally, this will lead to the broadening of the mind.
Reading a poem a day is a simple way to realise that the world is vast. It is by far the simplest way to step away from our own ego and self-importance and motivate oneself to go forth and discover the world that we have not discovered as yet.
{{/usCountry}}Reading a poem a day is a simple way to realise that the world is vast. It is by far the simplest way to step away from our own ego and self-importance and motivate oneself to go forth and discover the world that we have not discovered as yet.
{{/usCountry}}Most importantly, in these times when we are confronted by a daily stream of chaotic news entwined with the drudgery of our own working day, reading a poem offers temporary relief, a stilling of the mind, a little bit of much-needed peace.
Readers around the world will be glad to know that there are several websites like poets.org and poetryfoundation.org that offer free poems each day delivered to your mailbox in text and audio format. There’s even bestselling series of books simply called Poem A Day compiled by poet Karen McCosker and the late social activist Nicholas Albery and another popular one called A Poem for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri.
So, go forth and partake daily from the best poetry in the world. Think of reading a poem a day as a daily multivitamin for the mind.