When I was younger and didn't always have the best self image, it seemed like I just couldn't get the negative stuff out of my head. It seemed there was always a loop running that said I wasn't good enough, pretty enough or 'fill in the blanks.' Fortunately, with maturity that has all changed and I now have "good" stuff in my head, some of which are sage words that have been passed down through the odes and sonnets of long dead poets.
If we have a hard time making it through the day sometimes it might be wise to remember the words of Samuel Johnson, the 18th Century poet and essayist who, in speaking about the value of literature, said it helped him to 'enjoy and endure' his existence. Often we merely go through the motions to make it through another day. Poetry has the ability to lift our spirits and stay in our memory, replacing some of the negativity with images of beauty and tranquility.
When we learn a poem it helps to fill our head with nourishing thoughts and develops empathy, by demonstrating through the words of others, that we are not the only ones who have felt despair, futility, or humiliation. Every generation has pondered and lamented the reasons we go to war or in deepest inner pain, pined for unrequited love. When we think that we are all alone in the world, remember that someone else has had the same exact thoughts. After all "no man is an island, entire of itself," as John Donne wrote many long years ago.
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