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FORMS OF FEELING: POETRY IN OUR LIVES. Facing the emotions of a personal crisis, a poem can be the beginning of healing. But if poetry is good in a crisis, it’s also a way of reaching out for new experiences and renewing our lives. Poems remind us, consciously or not, of our first burblings and vocalizations and the pleasure they gave us as infants. Then came nursery rhymes and the jingles of jump rope and hopscotch. As we grow up, we ask other things from poems, but we should never forget that first sensory intoxication.
That’s why, even when it shocks us or brings us close to tears, one underlying theme of every good poem is a celebration of human experience.
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