NC Writers' Network: Writers' Morning Out

The Salutary Effects of Poetry

Poetry, per se, these days will never make me wealthy; but a poem a day consumed, I say, is key to staying healthy. There's something in the well-turned phrase or in the measured line that lifts the spirit in such ways approximating wine. There's ecstasy in metaphor, a state of grace imbued when words in combination form a heightened amplitude. The body takes its nourishment from what it can digest, in meats, in grains, in nutriments that make for stalwartness. But souls subsist on sweeter things than what can tease the tongue; and poetry that soars and sings keeps old men feeling young.                                                        © by Mike Orlock. Used with the author’s permission.