When you’re going through something, whether it’s a wonderful thing like having a child or a sad thing like losing somebody, you often feel like ’Oh my God, I’m so overwhelmed I’m dealing with this huge thing on my own.’ In fact, poetry’s a nice reminder that, no, everybody goes through it. These are universal experiences.

Kennedy frames poetry as a form of companionship in moments that feel isolating. Whether the experience is joyful (birth) or devastating (bereavement), intense emotion can produce the illusion that one is uniquely burdened. Poetry counters that illusion by testifying—across time, cultures, and individual lives—to recurring patterns of love, loss, fear, and hope. The quote also implies a democratic function of literature: it does not solve the crisis, but it normalizes it, offering language and perspective that reconnect the reader to a shared human story. In this sense, poetry becomes both consolation and a reminder of commonality.