Poetry is one of the most creative uses of language. Yet the influence of poetry on creativity has received little attention.The present research aimed to determine how the reception of different types of poetry affect creativity levels. In twoexperimental studies, participants were assigned to two conditions: poetry reading and non-poetic text reading. Partici-pants read poems (Study 1 = narrative/open metaphors; Study 2 = descriptive/conventional metaphors) or control pieces ofnon-poetic text. Before and after the reading manipulation, participants were given a test to determine levels of divergentthinking. In Study 1 (N = 107), participants showed increased fluency and flexibility after reading a narrative poem. InStudy 2 (N = 131) reception of conventional, closed metaphorization significantly lowered fluency and flexibility (com-pared to reading non-poetic text). The most critical finding was that poetry exposure could either increase or decreasecreativity level depending on the type of poetic metaphors.

Many researchers claim that negative emotions inhibit creativity. However, describing emotions in a safe environment hasbeneficial effects: it allows for the restructuring of difficult experiences, as a result, we discover the world again, whichcan influence creativity. The classic method of writing about emotions is long-term one. The hereby study was an attemptto verify, if one session of expressive writing improves creative thinking. This hypothesis was tested in an experimentalstudy by exposing participants (N = 60) to emotionally laden content. Participants viewed unpleasant images. The firstgroup wrote about their emotions in connection with the images. The second described their typical day. At the end allparticipants solved creativity measure (Alternative Uses Task). After each stage, emotions of respondents were measured.The conducted analyses had shown that, performance was better in the unpleasant emotions describing condition. At thesame time, negative emotions persistence has been observed.