5 Poems for When You're Feeling Lost
It is hard to get up and face the day when you are feeling lost, downtrodden, or stuck. The thing that is dogging you can be as big as the world or as small as a cold drop of rain, but when you’re facing that same feeling every day, the stagnation wears on you all the same. Sometimes the cure to feeling stuck isn’t to hide from the world, but to see the world in a new light. Percy Bysshe Shelley said, “poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.” Here are five poems to help you see something new in the world around you.
“Poem for a Young Poet,” by June Jordan
How often have you felt that you haven’t yet found the place where you belong? How much art and agony is there in the world about feeling lonely, isolated, or stuck? June Jordan responds to these feelings in a different way. She looks for the answer not in physical or abstract place, but in human connection: Most people search all / of their lives / for someplace to belong to / as you said / but I look instead / into the eyes of anyone / who talks to me.
“Good Bones,” by Maggie Smith
If you’re especially attuned to the painful parts of living in the world that we share, take a deep breath and read this poem. It’s a soft and sly meditation on reconciling the pain and joy of life, if not for ourselves then for the people we love and care for. Any decent realtor, / walking you through a real shithole, chirps on / about good bones: This place could be beautiful, / ight? You could make this place beautiful.”
“If I Should Have a Daughter,” by Sarah Kay
For mothers and daughters, or parents or children or anyone else, “If I Should Have a Daughter” or “B” is a sweet, snarky, and sincere love letter to a daughter not-yet-born to prepare her for the challenges and the joys she will one day face. See here for a Ted Talk in which Kay performs the poem live. Every line is beautiful, but I’m particularly partial this one: I’m going to paint solar systems on the backs of her hands, / so she has to learn the entire universe before she can say, / “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.”
“A Litany for Survival,” by Audre Lorde
This is a poem for those who struggle to find their place in a world in which they “were never meant to survive.” It is a message to those who live in fear of the past, present, and future, not just of its cruelty, but of the feeling of fragility that accompanies its grace. It responds to fear and caution with a missive: but when we are silent / we are still afraid / So it is better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive.
“Don’t Hesitate,” by Mary Oliver
You’ve likely noticed that these poems necessarily contrast joy and belonging with pain. Several of them tell you what to do in response to pain, or where to find joy, but not what to do when you’ve found it. So in the the wise words of Mary Oliver: If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, / don’t hesitate. Give in to it.