A poet from P.E.I. now living in Halifax has scored a surprise hit on YouTube with her video How to be Alone.

Tanya Davis's video, created with the help of filmmaker Andrea Dorfman, has had more than 600,000 views, placing it in the top 10 for this month. It was noted in a tweet by film critic Roger Ebert at the end of July.

Davis said she never expected the video to become so popular. But many people are feeling alone, she said, so this could be a reason for the video's success.

The video presents Davis's poem about combating loneliness as a song in a music video.

"It's helping them with their loneliness," she said.

"I'm getting a lot of quick anecdotes about how people are either going through divorces or breakups or they've been alone all this time, and how some of them have been scared to face it, and this poem has been making them feel braver about going forward."

Davis said she doesn't get any money from YouTube, but she thinks the worldwide exposure will help her career.

"I'm getting all these emails from people expressing their interest and how much they like the video," she said. "And some of them are brand new to my work."

Davis is also a musician with a new recording coming out in the fall. She said she would be using her new connections to help promote the release.