• Home
  • Poetry Prompts
  • For Writers
  • Daily Poem-Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Free Stuff + BOOKS
  • Patron Love

Why People Need Poetry, from Stephen Burt

By L.L. Barkat 6 Comments

Sometimes the best questions come from kids. Questions like, “Why do people write poetry anyway?” Which is just another way to ask why people need poetry.

Stephen Burt has some intriguing ideas on how to answer this. Check out his Ted Talk on Why People Need Poetry.

Photo by Pai Shih, Creative Commons, via Flickr.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing. She has also served as a writer for The Huffington Post blog and is a freelance writer for Edutopia. Her poetry has appeared on NPR and at VQR and The Best American Poetry. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
L.L. Barkat
Latest posts by L.L. Barkat (see all)
  • The 7 Principles of Making Friendship Work-Part III: Love and a Little GPS - December 1, 2020
  • The 7 Principles Series—Part II, How to Ruin a Relationship in 4 Easy Conflict Moves - October 3, 2020
  • 10 Ways to Be a Totally Epic Literary Citizen - August 3, 2020

Related

❤️✨ Sharing is caring

Filed Under: poetry teaching resources, Videos

About L.L. Barkat

L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing. She has also served as a writer for The Huffington Post blog and is a freelance writer for Edutopia. Her poetry has appeared on NPR and at VQR and The Best American Poetry. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Comments

  1. Megan Willome says

    December 12, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    I like his link between science fiction and poetry.

    Reply
    • L. L. Barkat says

      December 12, 2014 at 12:52 pm

      I should get my eldest to watch it and further the ideas. She’s a big sci fi and poetry fan both 🙂

      Reply
  2. SimplyDarlene says

    December 12, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    that image is terrifical.

    and the video? i’ll have to take a trip to town and mooch someone’s dsl connection — good excuse for a fancy-pants coffee, aye?

    Reply
  3. Richard Maxson says

    December 20, 2014 at 4:01 am

    Education (not schooling) has always been to me like the image of this post; it is always a part or parts of something larger and it says so by its openendedness; there is always something more left unsaid or not shown, something for which to continue moving.

    Last week I finished Maureen Doallas’s interviews with Joseph Hutchison and a few moments ago this video. I walked away from both with far more than I came to see, feeling I left with something both private and something shared.

    I found the introductory image by Pai Shih so fitting for the post that followed. It is an image that says, “this image is for you alone, except for a ring, a surface and a color; those are for everyone.”

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      December 20, 2014 at 1:00 pm

      “I walked away from both with far more than I came to see, feeling I left with something both private and something shared.”

      This is really something, this morning, as I consider a little movement we sort of started yesterday as a result of a Facebook conversation. We’re calling it: Citizens for a Saner Internet—And Life.

      One of the measures of this sanity and life might be exactly your quote.

      Reply
      • Richard Maxson says

        December 20, 2014 at 11:39 pm

        “Citizens for a Saner Internet — And Life” Sounds interesting. Would that be a section for social commentary?

        Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our January Menu.

Keep the World Poetic

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world thoughtful and poetic.

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Join the Poetry Club

Join the poetry club, when you become a subscriber to Every Day Poems ✨

The classic—Now a Graphic Novel!

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

Recent Comments

  • Megan Willome on Children’s Book Club: ‘Katy and the Big Snow’
  • Bethany R. on Children’s Book Club: ‘Katy and the Big Snow’
  • L.L. Barkat on 5 Simple Tricks to Make Space for Your Writing
  • Bethany R. on 5 Simple Tricks to Make Space for Your Writing

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Join Tweetspeak Poetry

Categories

Explore Work From Black Poets

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

Free Printable Poet Bios

Browse all poet bios now

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

About Us

  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • How to Write Form Poems-Infographics
  • • Poetry Club Tea Date
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • A Ritual to Read to Each Other
  • • Best Love Poetry
  • • Book Club
  • • Children’s Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Literary Analysis
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • VerseWrights Journal
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Give the Gift of Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2021 Tweetspeak Poetry · Site by The Willingham Enterprise · FAQ & Disclosure