There’s something about the art of writing while dealing with your mental stability that simply amazes me. Your mind can be full of overwhelming things or memories, but one thing that can be developed and used in your favor is poetry. Mental health and poetry can go hand in hand even if it doesn’t seem like it. I have been so much into writing since I was a young girl, but was always scared to actually let my personal thoughts out for the world to see. You see, there’s so much strength in vulnerability and creating art from such a dark place, somehow, it can be therapeutic and for some people, it can even be the start of healing.

You don’t have to be a professional writer nor a poet. You just need to have an open mind, a piece of paper and a pen and lastly, a willing to create. See how simple it can be? You don’t need to stress or overthink what you want to write. You just need to make it seem natural and you will be good to go.

Let’s Start by Defining What is Poetry?

According to Lexico, poetry is a literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of literature. It can also be a quality of beauty and intensity of emotion regarded as characteristic of poems.

For me, poetry is simply the art of expressing my feelings in a way that can be appealing to me or other people.

Your writing does not need to be perfect for you to create your poetry. You don’t need to make every word rhyme, in fact, your words don’t need to rhyme. You’re in control of every aspect of your work and of every word you decide to incorporate into your content. There are a lot of ways to write poetry it doesn’t need to be only a certain way nor it needs to resemble what you were thought in school. Yes, that’s the most common, more professional-like way but don’t emphasize on making it seem like you’re reflecting what you think other people want to see in your work. I mean, if you’re publishing your poetry maybe you do need to take some extra precautions with what you’re portraying and how you’re doing it, but if you’re not sharing it with anyone then go ahead and write what you want, what you feel, what you think. Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Now that we discussed what poetry is and what my definition of it is, let’s take a look on what poetry means to different poets.

Poets Definition

“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things” T. S. Eliot

“Poetry is indeed something divine. It is at once the centre and circumference of knowledge; it is that which comprehends all science, and that to which all science must be referred. It is at the same time the root and blossom of all other systems of thought; it is that from which all spring, and that which adorns all; and that which, if blighted, denies the fruit and the seed, and withholds from the barren world the nourishment and the succession of the scions of the tree of life. It is the perfect and consummate surface and bloom of all things; it is as the odor and the color of the rose to the texture of the elements which compose it, as the form and splendor of unfaded beauty to the secrets of anatomy and corruption.” Percy Bysshe Shelley

”Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. Poetry is what gets lost in translation.” Robert Frost

“Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toe nails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.” Dylan Thomas

“I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty. Its sole arbiter is taste. With the intellect or with the conscience, it has only collateral relations. Unless incidentally, it has no concern whatever either with duty or with truth.” Edgar Allan Poe

How to Incorporate Poetry Into Your Mental State?

Mental health can be such a complicated and complex topic for so many people, including myself. Sometimes we get stuck or we don’t know what to do to. It’s difficult and scary to think of letting all those intrusive thoughts out in a way that can be comfortable yet satisfying to us. You can create poetry with basically any topic you can imagine. Here are some, regarding mental health that you can use: • Depression • Anxiety • PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) • Trauma • Bipolar disorder • Social anxiety • Eating disorders, among other mentally illnesses

I am in no way saying that mental illness has no impact on you nor that it can be a topic to make it seem like it’s something positive about your life. Mental health and poetry do not equal a happy or perfect life. It just means that you have the power and ability to turn something negative, something that’s deeply hurting you and taking so much from you, into something that can be a hobby or simply something that can make you proud and feel like you’re achieving something. I know how draining and challenging it is to feel empowered or feel like you’re capable of doing something while dealing with these illnesses. You have the power to take all of those negative and intrusive thoughts into something that’s positive for you and something in which you can look back and feel proud of yourself for doing said thing.

If you don’t like writing or writing poetry makes you feel too anxious, you don’t need to do it. It’s not a requirement but a way of communicating with yourself. You can just write, it doesn’t need to be poetry but just a journal-time of experience in which you can make it a daily thing of writing everything that you’re feeling or just simply your thoughts, even if you don’t think they matter, because believe me, they do. If you don’t like writing at all, you can just search for other people’s poetry or art. A lot of us love sharing our work with people like you who enjoy researching, expanding their knowledge and even getting inspired by other people’s work. If you enjoy reading I recommend you search for poets in the mental health department. You’d be surprised by the amount of people that write about mental health.

If you have any poems that you would like to share, please don’t hesitate in sharing them on the commment section below