> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.merionwest.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How Reading 100 Poetry Books Changed the Way I See the World - URL: https://www.merionwest.com/how-reading-100-poetry-books-changed-the-way-i-see-the-world/ - Published: 2026-10-13T17:34:32.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T17:53:50.000Z - Description: After decades away from poetry, Erika Zambello challenged herself to read 100 poetry books in 100 days. What began as a literary experiment transformed how she spent her time and experienced everyday life. - Author: Erika Zambello - Tags: Essays, Poetry Essays I sold my first poem when I was eight—sort of. At a school fair in my hometown of Pownal, Maine, I set up a small table to sell animal figurines, each paired with a poem. Poetry was so central to my life then that I could not conceive of making something—in this case, little sculptures made of rocks hot-glued together—without pairing it with a few rhyming lines. My parents are not poets or particularly fond of poetry, but as an elementary school student, I surrounded myself with poetry. We read poems in class; my parents picked out library picture books that were essentially poetry and pictures; *Reading Rainbow* lit up our television screens. If I wanted to express myself, poetry was how I did it. It is sad, then, that after middle school, poetry essentially disappeared from my life for decades. I detested high school English lessons that spent ages dissecting a single poem, and this turned me off from the art form for many years. **The Return of Poetry** But then, in my mid-thirties, after not writing or reading poetry for two decades, poems began to pop into my brain, unbidden. They buzzed in my consciousness, repeating themselves, until I used any scrap of paper nearby (receipts, envelopes, school announcements) to jot them down. I am a freelance writer and a communications professional, so I know better than to throw away material. I realize now that I had re-entered the environment of my childhood. My own children are young, so we read books all the time, including books of poetry. One day in November of 2025, I decided I needed to read poetry if I insisted on writing poetry again. I am a fan of 100-day challenges, and so I launched an ambitious reading challenge: one hundred poetry books in one hundred days. I began with[ *The People’s Project*](https://www.simonandschuster.net/books/The-Peoples-Project/Saeed-Jones/9781668207024?ref=merionwest.com)*,* curated by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith, followed by[ *Great American Poets: Walt Whitman*](https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Great-American-Poets-Walt-Whitman-MOORE/22513687014/bd?ref=merionwest.com)*.* I picked up poetry books wherever I went: at the library, my local bookstore, and thrift stores. About halfway through, I realized how much I was enjoying myself. Moving through my list, I particularly enjoyed[ *An* *American Sunrise*](https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324003861?ref=merionwest.com)by Joy Harjo. As I read, I wrote down her poem “Singing Everything,” in which she begins “Once there were songs for everything” and then notes that now all we hear are love songs. This is so true. And how much of the human experience do we lose when we limit our songwriting to one theme? I next discovered that the actress Megan Fox had a book of poetry published: [*Pretty Boys Are Poisonous*](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Pretty-Boys-Are-Poisonous/Megan-Fox/9781668050415?ref=merionwest.com)*.* I did not know much about Fox beyond her movies, but I was very moved reading her short poems about painful relationships. Used bookstores proved to be the best sources of new poetry for my challenge. At the second-hand book room in the main branch of my county library, I discovered [*poems by women*](https://www.abebooks.com/9780912278360/Mountain-Moving-Day-Poems-Women-0912278366/plp?ref=merionwest.com), edited by Elaine Gill and published in 1973\. From these pages, I discovered seventeen poets whose work was new to me, including familiar names such as Margaret Atwood and Erica Jong. I dog-eared lines from Elizabeth Brewster’s "On Reading Another Poet" and underlined with the pen in my hand. I completed my challenge just in time, reading one hundred books of poetry in ninety-eight days. **Poems Instead of Screens** I brought up these books when I had dinner with a friend and our young daughters. Juggling their smoothies and our soups, we caught up. I knew less about what my friend had been up to than usual, and this was because she had not posted on Instagram lately, still the primary way I follow the lives of my friends and family. I scrolled a few times a day through a digital mix of family photos, horrific news, and craft ideas. However, because I work in communications, this adds up to a lot of time on Facebook and Instagram. Even though I know thattoo much social media sucks the minutes out of my day, I was not immune to falling down rabbit holes of viral dances, celebrity gossip, or horrible (and sometimes untrue) news stories. It turns out my friend’s absence on the app was intentional. She had been avoiding Instagram, and I applauded her out of concern for social media's often harmful effects. It was at that moment that I realized that my own app time was way down as well. I had not deleted Instagram; I had replaced my app time with poetry. I work, I have two children, and I try to go to the gym. So even reading a short volume of poetry each day required me to use whatever free time I had. I started sticking a book in my bag before heading out the door or double-checking to make sure I downloaded a poetry book to my e-reader app. Five minutes in the school pickup line is not enough time to sink into a novel or a memoir, but it is certainly enough time to read a poem or two. During a flight from Florida to Washington, D.C., I read all of Amanda Gorman’s 2021 collection [*Call Us What We Carry*](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688816/call-us-what-we-carry-by-amanda-gorman/?ref=merionwest.com), pausing throughout the many airport updates (getting tickets, waiting to board, waiting to take off, listening to flight announcements, et cetera) and then turning to the next poem. What would usually be a frustrating travel experience became pockets of quiet time to read a page or two. The news is particularly intense right now, amplified by the echo chambers on social media. I feel *better* after reading poetry; when I doomscroll, I always feel worse. Poetry is the most efficient art form I have ever found for taking a deep dive inside the mind of another person. It sparks a near-instantaneous connection with the writer, even if I do not like their poems. **How Poetry Changed My Thinking** Moreover, the way I saw the world changed, as did my internal dialogue. I go about my days with a near-constant internal voice. My brain is a noisy place. However, I noticed that as I made my way through one hundred books of poetry, the rhythm of these internal sounds changed. I found myself describing the slant of the light, or the waving of trees, or how it feels to hug my children as I pick them up from school. There were wisps of poems, flowing in and out of my consciousness, all the time. I may write them down, but for the most part, they are ephemeral, gone before I take my next breath. And I’m okay with that. Toward the end of my reading challenge, I discovered a writer who describes this same sensation, and I know I am not alone. Poet and painter Natalie Goldberg began her [*Top of My Lungs*](https://books.google.com/books/about/Top%5Fof%5FMy%5FLungs.html?id=zaRaAAAAMAAJ&ref=merionwest.com) collection, published in 2002, with the essay "How Poetry Saved My Life." In 1972, as a recent college graduate, "I experienced time collapse and space move into rivers," she explained. Perhaps my experience was not this dramatic, but her words resonated with me when she continued: "For the first time I noticed trees and flowers. I learned names: Russian olive, elm, oak, peony, geranium, petunia, marigold. Details mattered. Cracks on sidewalks, broken glass, worn stop signs, everything spoke to me. Rock, leaf, car. I rode rushes of thought with my cheap pen. I gripped a spiral notebook." **Poetry Then and Now** In many ways, life in my late thirties looks much like it did all those years ago in elementary school. My hair is usually piled on top of my head, looking a bit crazy. I have traded dresses and office attire for comfy sweats and T-shirts. And poetry is part of daily life once more: in the picture books I read to my children at night, in the lines I scribble in my notebook, and in the chapbooks I lug in my purse. Poetry matches the rhythm of my life in a way that longer prose cannot always match. At eight, I could not imagine making something without pairing it with a poem. Nearly thirty years later, I find I can scarcely imagine an ordinary day without one. ### Erika Zambello is a writer and communications professional living in North Florida.