Ignorance is one of the worst characteristics a person can have. When neglecting the national and global information that saturates the social media platforms and the world around you, it’s harder to build credibility or be taken seriously on your stances about issues and controversies if you don’t know the full story. If you don’t do the research, you shouldn’t do the talking.

Whether it’s due to disinterest or the inability of knowing where to look, many people don’t try to actively seek information about the world and therefore make the efforts of penetrating the bubble of disregard in which they dwell. Even when Google is right in front of them, the ability to understand still necessitates conscious self-motivation.

As someone who tries to understand as much as she can by watching documentaries and self-researching articles, I know I still have so much more to learn and explore in my pursuit of different news outlets. I’ve even advanced my search by mixing my passion for poetry to uncover different aspects of the news.

After the Beirut and Paris attacks, I went on a quest to find poetry regarding these tragedies. I had read through The New York Times, went onto TIME and scrolled down the endless number of Google results to really obtain a sense of what was happening, but I still felt the need to find an approach with which I was emotionally familiar so that I could identify the “what else?” tugging at my brain. I had a need to fill in the gaps of the things the articles excluded. Poetry has always been the crutch that has progressed my ability to understand. Thus, in my search, I finally discovered “The New Verse News”.

“The New Verse News” is a blog that exhibits poetry of contemporary events and currently discussed issues with a “politically progressive” standpoint, according to the website. Poets submit their work, and The New Verse News updates its site daily with one or more of the collected pieces.

Even by scrolling through the first few poems, viewers can really grasp different perspectives. It is an outlook not only into the events and issues being discussed throughout the world, but also into the perspective of people. It humanizes the headlines that many people scroll past on Facebook or BuzzFeed in favor of other pop culture posts.

F.I. Goldhaber’s “Shared Grieving” accentuated the discomforting fact of people’s narrow minded attention on terrorist attacks against white people while they lack knowledge of similar attacks against people of other races. Even this 10-line, two-stanza poem uncovered more about the many attacks in Yemen, Lebanon and Syria than the other media outlets or people’s Facebooks have promoted about these events. The haunting impact of the Goldhaber’s words reverberated from my eyes to my skin as the chill of the truth seeped into me.

I will admit that I changed my profile picture to the French flag filter before recognizing that I previously failed to give the same attention to other countries who have suffered the same or even greater extent of violence in their countries, but that’s why I’m making the effort to learn as much as I can.

When I found the New Verse News, the poetry site not only gave me more insight about the news I was looking for, but it also gave me a more in depth understanding about the suffering of the Syrian refugees and made me aware of the Central American Minors Program and its ineffectiveness,   something no one talked about despite being a national program. This illumination of facts and their accompanying emotional impact only emphasizes that just because you don’t hear about different things doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Utilizing your interests to learn more about the world not only motivates you to become a more active participant in the world, but allows you to become further immersed into your passion.

It’s a great way for people–especially those interested in poetry–to really evaluate the personal and intimate side of current events. Although you would still have to do some research on the topics you’re reading when reading The New Verse News, it’s at least an introduction: a glimpse into perspective. That’s definitely better than nothing.