The explorers of soul: Why millennials are turning to poetry | UK News

By Mica Montana, poet and author of When Daisies Talk

Britain’s new poet laureate has been unveiled as Simon Armitage, who says he wants to “help poetry explore its potential” in a multi-media age.

To celebrate the announcement, poet Mica Montana tells Sky News why millennials are turning to poetry to help them understand the world around them.

The questions of meaning and identity for our generation are no longer answerable by occupation, what we can achieve or what degrees we hold, because we have seen how these things have failed to hold the minds of those in the generations before us.

Before we work, we want to know who we are. We want to know who we can be. What it means to feel.

We want to know our souls deeper in order to manage our mental health. To know what it means to exist as a human being.

The answers to these questions come from the poets. The explorers of soul. The revealers of heart. Those who re-present life and remind us that there is a beauty within it.

Those who re-introduce the wonder of being alive that has been drowned out by the obligations of society.

It’s through the poets, poetry, that we can encounter ourselves. Identify our thoughts, explore our emotions and find who we are.

It is through poetry that the private life of the soul is made public. Through poetry we remember that love, joy, tragedy and heartbreak are not solo experiences of the heart but are integral to being human.

Through poetry we discover that our experiences of heart are worthy of being heard, expressed, and shared.

For me, reading poetry, listening to poetry, and writing my poetry book When Daisies Talk has been a reminder of what it is to be human in my fullness.

It has been a reminder of what it means to be alive.