Why Poetry Is Booming in a World of Chaos

Sales of poetry are at an all-time high—and it’s not just because of Hollywood. UK print sales of Homer’s *The Odyssey* jumped 1,400% in the four weeks to 25 July compared with the same period last year. In the US, year-to-date sales are up 76%. The reason? Christopher Nolan’s new film adaptation is driving a global surge in demand for the ancient epic. But remove the *Odyssey* effect, and poetry is still thriving. The boom is powered by writers often dismissed as “Instapoets,” such as Lucas Jones. Their work delivers short, uplifting messages rather than dense, layered verse or the musical rhythm of a well-translated Homeric epic. Yet even this simpler form of poetry reaches for something that everyday language cannot capture. And readers are responding. From the battlefields of Ukraine to the streets of Gaza, poetry is filling a gap when ordinary speech falls short. In times of violence and chaos, it becomes the only language strong enough to hold what we feel but cannot say.