“Art reminds us that we are all connected and we're much more alike than we are different.”
When most people think of the literary arts, they tend to separate them from other more common art forms such as painting or pottery. But for this instalment of Art Journeys, I sat down with Local poet Sara Rogers to discuss the art of poetry and to share why every art medium matters.
Rogers’ journey with poetry started in a place where creativity tends to bloom, when something feels missing from your life.
“I was not in a great place. Maybe it wasn't despair, but more confusion. And discontentment with myself. I felt that there was something that I had been ignoring while taking care of everybody else.” Rogers described. It’s a place and feeling that too many of us tend to be isolated inside of.
However, Rogers found that nature and poetry are what pulled her out of this isolation.
“I started walking in the woods a lot by myself. That's all I was being told to do. You go for a walk with the trees, with the river. And so I started just putting myself in natural places, and I think the natural part of me started to feel safe to surface. And I started hearing little verses of poems. And I thought I should write that down because that would be helpful for me to remember because it was encouraging. And it made me feel good. So I started to bring my journal, and the more I started writing, the more writing that came. And the biggest part for me was the joy that it brought to me.” Rogers stated.
For some reason, her words connected with me in a way that only a human could describe. Being in Muskoka, it’s easy to find the answers when in nature. It’s a different experience being up here compared to the rest of Canada.
Now in 2026, poetry plays an everyday role in everything she sees and does. Whether that’s a hummingbird dancing through the air or a conversation with someone in a coffee shop, the words flow through her mind to create peace and continue on her journey through this life. And Rogers’ poetry often focuses on the connection between nature and feminine energy.
“I think a lot of women struggle with our creative life. The book (Rogers’ book Elemental Magic) has a lot of folklore and mythical stories of women, instinct and our connection to the natural world. It's ingrained sort of like in my psyche. And people can connect with it.”
Part of Rogers’ inspiration for poetry is found in the hidden poetry that we listen to every day: music. As a fan of Gord Downey, she finds herself relating to the lyrics, perhaps in the way Downey intended but also in a way that connects her to herself.
“I feel like his music speaks to being more in the question than the answers because sometimes, you know, I'll be singing along to his lyrics and I have no idea what they mean, what he meant by it, but it still means something to me. Like it translates in a way that is not necessarily logical or reasonable, but is inherent to the connection to art and creativity. A song lyric while doing dishes or in moments where I’m not looking for it. Something will kind of pop up like a line or a word. And it's asking me to pause.” Rogers exclaimed. She later went on to discuss how her daughters showed her artists such as Noah Kahan, revealing the fact that artists from any place in the world, at any age, can connect with us on a deeper, unspoken level.
At the end of the interview, I asked Rogers the question we’re all here for: why does art matter? Her response, exactly what you’d expect from someone in the literary arts.
“Art, and poetry matter because it connects us to our humanity. And no technology or AI can replicate that. What it feels like to share a space with someone, to make eye contact, to share tears, joy, sadness, a generous spirit, or a doorway that allows us to continue to open our shared humanity beyond art. Art matters to me because it is like oxygen for the lungs or water to thirst. It's a hunger. There's a million things in this world that want us to forget who we are, and it's intentional. But when we come back to the creative life and creative work, and we are more in touch with who we've always been, and who we've always meant to be, we begin to take care of each other on this planet.”
After my conversation with Rogers, I felt a lot of things become clear. As a fellow literary artist, our art takes on the literal form of what art is at its core: Storytelling. When you think of it, every single art is just storytelling with a different font. And for Rogers, it's sharing her story of growth and connection to the earth through poetry. Now the question is, how do you tell your story through art?