Let's detox our cluttered academic brain. That's what the poet

"Let’s detox our cluttered academic brain. That’s what the poet does. People call it daydreaming, detoxing our minds and taking care of that clutter. It’s being able to let in call letters from the poetry universe." So spoke Juan Felipe Herrera, a poet of the people, who lifted language out of dust and song out of silence. His words are both playful and profound: the poet is one who clears away the excess weight of intellect, the sterile accumulation of facts, and makes space for wonder. The poet does not hoard thoughts but liberates them, turning the noise of the world into channels through which messages from a deeper universe may arrive.

The ancients themselves knew this wisdom. Did not Plato call the poet “possessed,” touched by divine madness? To the rational mind, this appeared as mere daydreaming, a wandering from the path of logic. Yet to the wise, this so-called madness was the gateway to truth that reason alone could not reach. Herrera echoes this tradition when he says poetry is the detoxing of the mind: the clearing of clutter so that inspiration—the "letters from the poetry universe"—can flow like fire into the soul.

History has shown again and again that great creativity requires such a cleansing. Albert Einstein himself declared that imagination was more important than knowledge. He was no poet by trade, yet his greatest discoveries came not through the cluttered academic brain, but through his capacity to dream beyond what logic allowed. His "thought experiments" were not unlike daydreams, and they opened new universes of truth. In this, we see Herrera’s wisdom: the poet is not bound by clutter, but freed by vision.

Poets of every age have lived this discipline. Emily Dickinson, in her quiet room, withdrew from the noise of her world so that she could hear the faintest whispers of eternity. To others, her seclusion might have seemed strange, even wasteful. Yet what they called idleness was in fact the profound detoxing of mind, a clearing of space to receive the secret rhythms of existence. In her daydreaming, she listened, and the letters of the poetry universe arrived in her verses.

Herrera’s words are also a critique of how the modern world worships productivity and information. We are taught to pack the mind with endless data, to measure worth by output, to prove ourselves by constant activity. Yet the poet reminds us that the mind, like the body, must be cleansed, must rest, must breathe. Without such renewal, creativity withers, and the spirit becomes suffocated by its own accumulation. Detoxing the brain is not laziness—it is an act of care, a way of making room for vision.

The lesson here is clear: we must honor the art of pause, the necessity of stillness, the wisdom of clearing space. Let your mind wander. Embrace moments of silence without guilt. Allow yourself to daydream, for in those moments the clutter falls away, and something greater may enter—insight, beauty, poetry, truth. To live only by the crowded noise of intellect is to live half a life. To balance knowledge with imagination is to live fully.

Practically, this means creating time for reflection. Step away from your screens and books; walk in nature; write without purpose; sit quietly until the noise fades. These are the gateways through which the "letters from the poetry universe" may enter. Do not fear the emptiness—within it lies the voice of creation.

So remember, children of tomorrow: the poet detoxes the mind, clears the clutter, and opens the channel. Do not scorn daydreaming, for it is the workshop of vision. Do not worship clutter, for it drowns the voice of truth. Instead, let your mind be washed clean, and listen. For in the silence beyond noise, the poetry of the universe is waiting to speak.