If you’re reading this article, you’re probably (at least a little bit) interested in reading poetry. You might want to spend an hour going to a reading or sitting down with a new collection, but it’s not always possible to fit it into your busy schedule. As an alternative, here are some bite-size ways to fit poetry into your daily life.
1. Poetry as Decoration
One of the best ways to surround yourself with poetry is to literally surround yourself with poetry. Print out a few (or more than a few) of your favorite poems, and put them up on your wall to keep you company! My eyes skim over the poems on my dorm room wall by the dresser while I’m getting ready in the morning, and their lines swim through my head all day.
2. Poem of the Day
Okay, this definitely isn’t an original idea—there are a plethora of websites, like the Poetry Foundation or Poets.org, that will send a poem to your email inbox every day. But here, I want to suggest something a bit different. I have an iMessage group chat of twelve friends to which I send a poem that I’ve come across and enjoyed (almost) every day. This, I feel, is a more personal form of daily poetry, where the participants can react to poems and we can converse about them. Try starting your own—you’ll be surprised how many people are interested in joining!
3. Start a Poetry Collection
But how, you ask, do I find all of these poems to send to the group chat? Every time I come across a poem I like on social media or while reading, I screenshot it and add it to a photo album on my phone. I browse through them at random times, like while standing in the bathroom as my other hand brushes my teeth or sitting on the bench waiting for the bus. Poetry doesn’t always need to be on paper!
4. Read Literary Magazines
If reading an entire book of only poems is intimidating, try investing in a subscription to a literary magazine—they typically publish poems, short stories, essays, and sometimes interviews. My personal favorites are The Paris Review and Ploughshares! I always feel enriched in a literary atmosphere after reading the former, and the latter has allowed me to discover some of my favorite poets.
5. Read a Short Poem
While book-length poems like The Odyssey and Citizen: An American Lyric hold a special place in my heart, it’s sometimes nice to read a poem that is both powerful and brief. Some of my favorites are “Matinee” by Andrea Cohen and “Salvage” by Hedgie Choi.
When I first started reading poetry, I was intimidated by the sheer number of poems out there and the time it would take to read them, let alone re-read all of the poems I wanted to come back to. But with these strategies, I’ve built a solid collection that I look at regularly, connected with so many people about poetry, and made poetry into a seamless part of my everyday routine. I hope that, with practice, you can do the same!
Written by Talia Beckhardt
Talia Beckhardt (she/her) is an undergraduate student of English Language & Literature at Smith College originally from Boston, Massachusetts. She is currently an intern at Pangyrus Literary Magazine and Porter Square Books. Her work has been published in Trace Fossils Review and Emulate Magazine.