‘Poetry Rx’
— Hannah Cohen
Since this is my last feature with the Wilds team and the lovely folks at Platypus Press, I wanted to do something different and focus on the ‘Poetry Rx’ feature over at The Paris Review—this week, Kaveh Akbar applied some poetic poultice to burning questions about relationships, video games, and life circumstances. Despite all our different backgrounds and lifestyles, every single one of us have faced some sort of impasse, or struggle, or challenge. And many of us, especially writers, turn to the written word to find some sort of answer. Sometimes we don’t get the one we’re looking for, but rather the one we need. What I love about this amazing column is the exposure to different poets—our prescription this week samples Mary Oliver, Cortney Lamar Charleston, Colette Arrand, Nate Marshall, and others.
I turn to poetry when I’m feeling lost, scared, depressed, super depressed, and yes, even happy. Kaveh Akbar says “[o]ur lives are what we fill them with”. As I start a new chapter in my life, I hope I can continue to fill it with the forms that matter.