Why bother with poetry?

• A great poem is one which, deposited in the bank of memory, can be drawn against throughout life and yield an ongoing interest of insight and awe!

Personal growth

• …there is personal growth.

• Often a poem will express an emotion or experience we might be grappling with. Or the emotive nature of poetry will "make real" an experience. Feeling is such a powerful way of knowing.

Emotional intelligence

• We need to confront emotions and to learn the feelings behind actions and events. It is all part of growing into a whole and tolerant person and becoming a tolerant citizen.

Soul food!

• Unlike manipulating the exchange rate or cloning sheep, poetry is good for the soul.

Disrupts complacency

• we can learn more about ourselves. It connects us with our compassion, wonder, empathy and appreciation.

• It can also disturb us, shaking us out of our comfort zone.

Experience distilled

• We need stuff that helps us to interpret, understand and appreciate the extraordinary and the ordinary events in our lives.

• In some ways, poetry is experience distilled.

Beautiful truth

• “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”.