Poetry in Pyjamas - Creative ways to get intimate with poetry

"Wherever you are right now — on the planet and in your life — you are, repeat after me, worthy of poetry." - This Poetry Writing Month, let us reclaim poetry together

Dear reader,

Last time, I shared an essay titled, ‘Why we secretly avoid, resent, and disown poetry’. Today, I want us to openly enjoy, experiment with, and embrace poetry. Here’s the sequel essay.

First, an announcement:

No matter our age, social background, educational experience, language level, mood — we are always one poem away from poetry.

This essay is an invitation to rub our eyes and look at poetry differently, and while we are at it, to look at ourselves, our brains and bodies differently too. Let’s use everything from common sense to emerging neuroscience to rekindle our relationship with this ancient art.

Poetry in Pyjamas - Creative ways to get intimate with poetry

poetry - how heavy it had grown since last he held it. - Erasure poem by Mary Ruefle on Gwarlingo

1. Slow down your squirrel mind.

I hate this because I like to think fast, eat fast, and listen to my podcasts at 1.5x. Yet, I have found no other way to savour a poem than to slow down with it. Slowing down opens us to the visuals of a poem, which can’t be enjoyed when we are rapidly scrolling down our feeds. Today, poetry is more available than ever before. But it is often found in the same place as reels, shorts, and games. The internet. If you find a poem online, slow down your squirrel mind, stop scrolling for a bit, and read the poem slowly, out loud. If you like a poet, get their poems printed. Buy anthologies. Take naps with them.

2. Freely dislike most poems.

It is curious how some people are disappointed in themselves when a poem doesn’t affect them the way it moves others. I’ve seen their faces droop and their self-doubt rise. Nothing is more liberating than the right to dislike poems. We don’t need to love all poems to have a thriving relationship with poetry. We don’t even need to like one entire poem all at once. I encourage myself and my teen students to highlight only a few lines in each poem.

3. Hold the poem with both hands, and both brains.

Imagine you have to hold a heavy, 15-inch laptop with your non-dominant hand for a long time. It will hurt, and you risk dropping the laptop. That’s what has happened with poetry. We have been asked to “appreciate” poems by analyzing them, writing comments, thinking and theorising upon them, typical left-brain activities. Now imagine holding the same laptop with both hands. Gets easier instantly. In fact, the dominant hand can handle more load. What will happen if we allow our right-brain to take the lead with a poem? It is more skilled to notice the shape of the poem, the music of its words, the emotions of the poet, the synesthesia of its sensory details. We will expand our capacity to handle both - the meaning and the mystery of a poem.

4. Embody the poem.

Now imagine, the heavy laptop mentioned above was not held by your hands, but rested on top of your lap, where laptops were meant to be. It will be easier, right? What will happen if we didn’t park a poem only in the brain, what if we let it ride our whole body? A study observed the heart rate, facial expressions, and skin hair of people enjoying poems. They literally got chills and goosebumps! Poems have more rhythmic patterns than prose, so they can literally sync with our breath and heartbeat, resembling other rhythmic activities like walking and sex. So next time you meet a poem, even if it is in Spanish, don’t freeze, read it out loud, sigh, vibrate, buzz with it. Embody it.

5. Meet poetry in pyjamas.

When I say let’s meet poetry in pyjamas, pyjamas is a symbol for being at home. Wherever you are right now — on the planet and in your life — you are, repeat after me, worthy of poetry. You are worthy of accessing beauty from anywhere, just as you are. You don’t have to be clever, wear kohl, have a PhD. You don’t even need a vast vocabulary. If you are still learning a language, you might be better suited for poetry, because you would be closer to innovation and farther from rules. Meet poems, especially when life doesn’t feel poetic enough, when you’re sad, sick, silly, or craving for a scrumptious snack even though you are full.

from Why - a poem/film by Richard Siken

6. Light up your brain with metaphors.

Metaphors exist inside and outside poetry and make up 13% of all written and 6% of all spoken language. They make our brain ‘touchy feely’ and ‘carry the most truth in the least space’. When a student connected his mother’s love to spicy biryani, I could immediately feel the yumminess of her nourishing love, as well as the occasional, sharp bite of elaichi. Metaphors help us make sense of the grey areas of our emotional life. They are being used in therapy.

7. Do poetry together.

We are not doomed to forever meet in cafes or watch Netflix and Swiggy in some food, we can read out poems to each other. We can gift poems or DM them. We can memorize a poem, make it our internal jewelry, and read it out to a loved one. Poetry readings might feel intimidating, poetry open mics might feel awkward, but doing poetry together has power.

8. Reclaim poetry, fight for its custody

We are hardwired for poetry. Poetry is an ancient human lifestyle that predates literacy. Those who head nation-states, religions, politics, and corporations are well aware of poetry’s penetrative power, its memorable and musical impressions on us. Speeches, pitches, advertisements, scriptures, anthems, all exploit our subconscious attraction to poetic devices. Wouldn’t it be better to get conscious and intentional about poetry? To use our in-built equipment for our own gain and delight?

Be selfish, fight for the custody of poetry from its gatekeepers. Be an adult, reclaim it despite all the myths in social and educational spaces.

And after all this flirting with poetry, if you feel like writing a poem, don’t stop yourself. Writing poems is the fastest way to fall in love with poetry.

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Write and bloom

Natasha Badhwar

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