On Reading Poetry.
Who am I to write about poetry? It's like Shakespeare in some senses. I know I should like it, but I don't know how. The language is foreign, and I don’t understand the concepts as maybe others do. Believe me, I've tried. And some poetry clicks with me. Yet, I still feel insecure about the writing form. After listening to the Conversations With Tyler episode with Harvard English professor and Poetry In America host, Elisa New, I now feel less insecure.
For one, I've already taken the first step that she suggests for someone getting into poetry:
“Buy one of those anthologies. Buy any poetry anthology, and don't try to start at the beginning and work your way through. Just open it up, and see if something grabs you, read it once and read it again.”
- Elisa New on CWT
I own two of these anthologies. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman and Devotions by Mary Oliver. I bought the Whitman in the early 2000s because of his poem Miracles.
“As to me I know nothing else but miracles…”
- From Miracles by Walt Whitman
Reading the poem still touches me like it did the first time when I read it over a decade ago from a used bookstore in Washington, D.C. I equate Whitman's words with a spiritual experience. That said, I don't remember reading any of the other poems in the collection (except for O Captain! My Captain!)
“Today, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood.”
- From Mysteries, Yes by Mary Oliver
I bought Devotions by Mary Oliver in the late 2010s for the poem Wild Geese and stumbled works like Mysteries, Yes. I think I scanned the table of contents for titles that attracted my attention. I read, and dog eared Mysteries, Yes. It so happens to sound a lot like Whitman's poem. Perhaps, it's mysteries and miracles that grab me when it comes to poetry?
Elisa continues with a suggested next step after you've found a poem of interest. I hadn't tried this technique until today after listening to the podcast episode:
“Print it, just it, just this one poem… And put it in your pocket… and pull it out while you're standing in line somewhere or waiting for a bus. Pull it out, and just let your eye bounce around it.
Whitman recommended this. He felt we should treat poems casually. He said, “Loafe with me on the grass.” That was the posture he recommended for reading poetry. Relax into this language of another person.”
- Elisa New on CWT
Sitting before me are the two poems I mentioned above. Whitman and Oliver. At the moment, they encourage me as I write. Earlier, they nudged up against my leg, from my pocket, as I presented design work this afternoon. Later they sat on the counter as I chopped carrots and broccoli for a Thai noodle dish this evening. Pretty casual, I’d say.
I don't have anything to be insecure about when it comes to poetry. It's worked its magic over me through these two poems, and maybe that's enough. On the other hand, Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan is playing from the other room and Elisa New considers him a poet (he won the Nobel in Literature, after all). Dylan’s certainly worked his magic over me, as well, through his lyrics and sound. Likewise, musicians like Nas, whom New features in her first season of Poetry in America, are also poets I enjoy. Poetry is everywhere and it appears to be for everyone, whether you’re secure about it or not.