“It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” -William Carlos Williams
Poetry is a medium as old as civilization itself. Before the invention of writing, it is the medium that enabled us to transmit our stories and histories. To this day, it is the most memorable–and memorize-able–of all forms of communication, as evidenced in song lyrics. In fact, it is such a powerful medium that leading thinkers writing both for the Harvard Business Review and The New York Times have articulated that poetry is desperately needed (and would be immeasurably useful in breaking down barriers) in the worlds of business and politics.
Additionally…
Poems are short. Everyone’s pressed for time, and research shows that, in today’s internet culture, the attention span of some has been reduced to nine seconds! If, prior to the monthly meeting, you don’t have 10 minutes to read and think about the two selected poems, no worries. Each of the meeting’s two, one-hour discussions is launched with an out-loud reading.
Poems pack maximum message and meaning into the fewest possible words.
Poems are mostly about “life’s basics”: love and relationships, truth and beauty, adversity and death.
Poems typically get at their subjects in language stripped to the bone… gone the jargon, slogans, newspeak, and ad copy… and gone silly hyperbole, tired metaphors, and hollow clichés… which is why poems are almost uniquely able to help us hear, communicate and connect.
