room for blank stacks and stacks staves
waiting to find their melodies waiting
to take your place but on that last day
they’ll be devastated just like you what
I just read was an excerpt from the
first poem that I willingly wrote I’ll
be honest it’s a messy piece of bad
verse about leaving a summer camp
I still didn’t bring myself to tell
anyone how nostalgic I felt even a few
weeks after leaving camp and no matter
how badly I wanted to call up my friends
from camp and talk about all the amazing
and memorable moments we shared I did it
if I did it I would have had to face the
reality of my situation over and over
again so I tried my best to avoid it all
together and admit to myself that I
would never return it to the community
at health posts to my heart but when I
listened to stairway to heaven by Led
Zeppelin a traditional camp song
all my memories of camp came rushing
back to me but instead of pushing these
memories out of my head I savored them
and wrote my first poem about camp
looking back I have to admit that this
first poem wasn’t the best thing I’ve
ever written some part of me knew I
could make something out of poetry after
all it gradually evolved from a simple
hobby to my problem
instead of having to express my thoughts
out loud or keep them entirely to myself
I can simply write them down and stands
up whether you we didn’t or write it
love it or hate it I want you to know
that poetry is much more than a few
words simply put together to sound
meaningful so today let’s first learn
about the ways we can use poetry to
reflect on our lives next we’ll see the
waves poach we can help us gain the
courage we need to overcome adversity
and finally we’ll find out how we can
move forward with our lives starting
with one word one life in one poem
poetry can be a positive outlet for
reflection because of its relationship
with music and memories
shortly after I wrote that’s that first
poem I created a playlist of all the
songs I heard during my time I can I did
this because I realized that I could
listen to songs that are reminding me of
specific moments in my life and write
poems to preserve the memories I
associated with those songs research
published in the Journal of
consciousness studies found that areas
of the brain associated memories or
activated when meeting a favorite poem
according to Adams even a professor at
the University of Exeter a common
denominator between music and poetry is
that they both evoke emotional
landscapes and let us experience
emotions outside of their normal setting
these emotional experiences which he
called shivers down the spine are unique
to poetry and indicate recollection and
introspection poetry can send shivers
down our spine and it can also help
people overcome adversity in part
because poetry has so many health
benefits let’s consult dr. Roman Philipp
a consultant at the Bristol Royal
Infirmary
okay confident business poetry with his
patients his research suggests that
poetry can combat depression
seventy-five percent of participants in
one of the studies about poetry to
provide an emotional release for others
writing poetry helped them to completely
wean themselves off antidepressants and
other forms of medication so why don’t
there has stopped the pills and take up
poetry with confusing social situations
and pressure from school and work most
of us have a lot to process while trying
to maintain balanced lives it’s not easy
for all of us to talk about all of our
problems but we can write poetry as a
personal way to reflect on our lives
without having to worry about external
sources of criticism and judgment
leakage of house co-author of right for
life supports this idea she states
sometimes our thoughts get caught up in
a mental youth by writing them down we
are getting them out there you might
think or say I feel unhappy but that’s
only as far as it goes we’re writing
poetry you can go even further you begin
to use metaphors and examples to arrive
at a very specific definition of your
own particular and Happiness ultimately
this self-awareness enables us to tackle
problems and move on so far you’ve
learned about how poetry can help us to
reflect and overcome adversity I could
have continued to give you even more
statistics and quotes about how in its
benefits but I do believe it’s very
important to understand the impact of
poetry on a personal level not long
after I left camp I was a sophomore and
I know of problems that I felt were too
personal to share with even my family or
my
friends I felt as if my goals and
opinions were constantly being
invalidated and at the same time I was
the subject for summer camp and other
places I want to never see again and
this is where I unknowingly began to
miss coach we had a positive outlet for
myself to move forward in my poems I
wrote about my feelings of nostalgia and
frustration as well as how much I wished
to return to the Past and savor happier
moments of my life and this is where the
relationship between poetry music and
memories comes into play I made a
playlist of songs for each month of
every year for the past three years
and the songs I’ve collected in every
single one of these playlists have been
the main inspiration for most of my
poetry whenever I wanted to bring back a
memory of a certain person place or
event I would simply search for a
playlist
pick a song and write about whatever
came to mind when I realized that I had
way too many poems to keep track of I
decided to publish my first poetry
collection title return I may be an
extreme case in having to write a book
of poetry to cure my own homesickness
but the fact still stands that poetry
has saved my life I directly confronted
my problems because I wrote about them
honestly more importantly I realized
that there will always be a new chapter
of my life and that I have so much to
look forward to now that you know my
poetry has so many benefits it’s your
dream to experience the magic of poetry
for yourself sometime after this speech
get out a pen and a piece of paper write
a poem about anything you want if
absolutely nothing comes out that’s okay
so here are three things I highly
suggest to keep in mind when beginning
to write poetry first of all the first
poem that you willingly write is the
most important it is your first attempt
ever might be perfect nobody is born a
poet
because anyone can learn how to read
poetry many things take effort time and
practice and writing the whole tree is
one of them secondly don’t search for
inspiration because it will find you
virus poems the ones I always print out
are not surprisingly the ones I’ve
forced myself to write nobody can tell
you what you should write it up because
you’re the only one who knows what you
feel
finally you will know when you are a
poet and more importantly you will know
when you have moved forward when you ask
yourself one question what would I be
like without poetry without poetry I
would not be here I would still be stuck
in the past somewhere in my sophomore
year I would not be here whenever I sit
down to write a new poem I think back to
a few lines of one of my favorite poems
that I’ve ever written it’s titled why I
write and here’s an excerpt from it I
write to prove not myself but the truth
that nobody is born a poet I was not
born a poet no one was I raised to
become one and to prove that nothing
else matters nothing else should the
moment begins the paper a little late we
give away a part of ourselves that
simply continues to expend and transform
into something too powerful too alive
too impossible to ignore
and this is why I believe that moving
forward can begin with one word one line
one poem thank you very much [Applause]