Why You Should Read Poetry...Yes, Poetry

In May of 1944, the poet Anna Akhmatova gave a reading at the Polytechnic Museum, the largest auditorium in Moscow. It was her first appearance in the city since World War II, and the room was packed. The poems she read had rallied Russians throughout the war, and her voice had broadcast through the streets of Leningrad to steel the city to the approaching German Army. When she finally closed her books, she received such thunderous applause that Joseph Stalin asked who'd organized the ovation. The man knew power when he saw it.

If you grew up in America, it might surprise you to learn that a poet has ever had that sort of impact. Poetry here is best known for the simple, sentimental verses found in Hallmark cards and the lyrics of pop music. The word "poet" probably calls to mind some weirdo in a beret. And poetry's power to influence American politics is, at best, a fizzle--if you heard anything about the anti-Bush anthology Poets Against the War, then you listen to a lot of NPR. The truth is most Americans have lost touch with the best of what poetry is: a record of some of civilization's greatest writers--and wisest people--taking on the questions and emotions that define us.

Certainly, the world has changed a lot since Akhmatova. Time once devoted to reading books now goes to TV, movies, and the Internet. When people do read, most prefer to pick up something they can relax with like John Patterson or Augusten Burroughs. But one only needs to look down the aisles of inspirational books at Barnes and Noble to know that the search for meaning that has always driven the great poems still resonates. Classic themes like love, despair, life, death, and hope still infatuate us. Heck, you can find them all in one episode of "Grey's Anatomy." Yet the poems of faith John Milton wrote after he'd gone completely blind, the atheist Percy Bysshe Shelley's passionate explorations of a godless world, and Sylvia Plath's struggle just to hold her world together all go under-appreciated and under-read.

So why aren't we reading poetry? Here are some reasons I often hear that will probably sound familiar. Here, too, are some reasons to reconsider.

Reason 1: I've never understood it.

Poetry can be difficult. Learning to read Shakespeare is difficult, and I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone take on T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" without some guidance. But most poets are far more accessible than Eliot or Shakespeare. Also, it's important to note that your expectations for a poem should be different from your expectations for, say, a newspaper or a novel. A poem often has multiple layers of meaning that will unfold over a few readings--and it's important to give a poem that opportunity. It's a good idea to read a poem more than once in a sitting or go back and reread it over the course of a few weeks or even a lifetime. Remember that the process of exploring a great poem should be part of the reward. As Walt Whitman asked in "Song of Myself":

"Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? Have you reckon'd the Earth much?

Have you practic'd so long to learn to read?

Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?"

Reason 2: I can't get past the whole rhyming thing.

Rhyming verse can fall a little hard on the modern ear, which is why most contemporary poems are written in "free verse" with no set meter or rhyme scheme. Rhymes are a part of poetry's music: the rhythms and sounds of words from which a poet draws power. Like a great soloist or orator, a poet with a good ear can infuse what he's saying with emotion and immediacy. If you're reading a poem with end rhymes and they're bothering you, ignore the line breaks and try reading the poem as if it's prose.

Reason 3: Poetry is for angst-ridden teens, hopeless romantics and the aforementioned weirdos in berets.

Sure, you run into a few aspiring poets at your local coffee shop that fit this bill, but I guarantee you couldn't pick a practicing poet off the street. We're surprisingly normal. Just like you, we're obsessed with things like fantasy football and I Love New York 2. I was on track to be a doctor before I stumbled on poetry (yes, my parents were real happy about that one). That's not to say that your experience with poetry will be as all-consuming as mine, but for all that poetry has given me, I have no doubt that it has something to give you.

So how should you begin? I'd recommend you start with an anthology. You can't go wrong with the Norton Anthology of Poetry, which covers everything from medieval English verse to Bob Dylan. When you find a poet you like, buy a book of his or her work. Volumes of poetry aren't as daunting as the word "volume" implies. In fact, they're relatively small. And you can read through most poems in a fraction of the time it takes to finish a Sudoku. You should also check here each week, where I'll be posting a great poem as a blog. Think of it as a weekly cultural aperitif.

Comments

[RogerARTcom]

ECs

JOIN THE ARMED LOVE DOVES

SIGN UP TODAY… ON YOUR PLANET

JOIN THE GREAT FIGHT 4 LIFE

THE WAR AGAINST ALL WAR

THE WAR 4 PEACE

[RogerARTcom]

LIFE

Life is Like Going Into a MOVIE...

Long After it BEGAN...

And Then We LEAVE...

Before...

THE END

[RogerARTcom]

“ OUR Children -

Starve To Death - Collecting Money

- Around OUR Earth “



Collecting Money

And Food

Like Marbles

While OUR Children

DIE

Starving On Earth

Next Door

Is Like…
Hording Food

And Money

Like Candy

While OUR Children

DIE

On OUR Earth

Of Maximum Greed

And Curable Famine

------

" 4 Christ Sake... STOP IT "

By, Roger Drowne EC, Fall, 2006

[jtindc]

Ahh...

Reading Ogden Nash is like
A breath of fresh air on a hike.

[hontonoshijin]

Ogden dares to have fun, to play.

[RogerARTcom]

" DEATH "
Death Stopped Earth 4 Me

I Got Off...

It Spun Out of Sight

.

" Is That It "

What - Said That ?

[RogerARTcom]

the ART of Earth Ball



BRAIN - FOOD

it's PAST THINKING in a straight LINE

Point A to Point B

get, PAST THINKING in a CIRCLE

Round and Round

it's EC THINKING inside & outside

the ROUND, the BALL

it's EC Multiple Dimension Thinking

DOING - BEING - simple - LOVE

- GET - EAT - DRINK - LIVE - B - PEACE

MY LOVEs

[avergejoe]

I would encourage everyone to check out Kahlil Gibran

Joy and Sorrow

Then a woman said, 'Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.'
And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, 'Joy is greater than sorrow,' and others say, 'Nay, sorrow is the greater.'

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Kahlil Gibran

[aaronhbridges]

your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
thank you.

[larry278]

Gibran is another plague wrongfully associated with his suffering native land. His writing is as insightful as the works of the USA's Edgar Guest. Flee at once when you encounter anyone who quotes Gibran. Gibran is the HIV of poetry.

[RogerARTcom]

Blind Obtuse Money Kills Like A Gun . . .

Just Quieter...

By Roger Drowne EC - Earth

The Bu$h / Cheney / Rove - USA
Sick government stolen gangsters...

Obtuse Killers...

and buds lie in the shit...

Jolly

Meanwhile on the far side of Turd Blossom Street...
Creative people are Given hidden tools...
Out of the Earth to pry lose truths from the Gods...
To slay the lie-fire smoking muck...
Foaming from the death-dragon's forked tongue...
Singing their Happy Motto...

They are already Dead a long time ago

It's time for
The obtuse W one
To go
And
Never play the boss
Of
Hurricanes
War
Or
Sick
Love
Again

Killing
Old and Young
Alike

[ProudAmericanLiberal]

Thank you John, I look forward to reading your work on Huffpo. I have considered it part of my life's work to make poetry part of the national conversation.
===================
When

When the bombs are falling
What is poetry for anyway?
When bullets fly
What is the use and power of it?
When people die
What is poetry for anyway?

Look around for an open mic reading in your neighborhood.

[sa]

"what do you think of your
blue-eyed boy now, Mr. Death?"

e.e. cummings

(tatood on Harry Crews' bicep)

long live cummings, Crews.

[dora rice]

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. My all time favored .

[cindyw]

I love Robert Frost. Are you old enough to remember his reciting "The Gift Outright" at JFK's inaugural? I think my favorite Frost poem is "November".

[Nommo]

ALOUD! Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe!
Edited by Miguel Algarin and Bob Holman
1994, Henry Holt and Company

[WigWamWag]

Forget about reading it.
Write your own. It need not rhyme or even be published.
Writing good poetry is a voyage of self discovery and creativity.

[Chukchi1]

A few poetry favorites. Adrienne Rich. TS Eliot. Wallace Stevens. Howl. Leaves Of Grass. Gwendolyn Brooks. WB Yeats. Dylan Thomas. Pablo Neruda. Mary Oliver. Emily Dickenson. This amazing poem called the Interior Prisoner by a poet named Geoffry O'Brien. The Hill Wife poems by Robert Frost. The incredibly poetic prose of great writers like Annie Proulx and Ken Kesey and others. The poetic lyrics of Patti Smith and Joni Mitchell. Read it aloud. Read it loudly, badly, well. Just read it.

[c0marts]

When the kids were young they were encouraged to join in the gardening, but as I get older I become more of a curmudgeon about my garden. Maybe grandchildren will change that, but for now Robert Louis Stevenson's gardner gives me a measure of comfort:

The gardener does not love to talk.
He makes me keep the gravel walk;
And when he puts his tools away,
He locks the door and takes the key.

Away behind the currant row,
Where no one else but cook may go,
Far in the plots, I see him dig,
Old and serious, brown and big.

He digs the flowers, green, red, and blue,
Nor wishes to be spoken to.
He digs the flowers and cuts the hay,
And never seems to want to play.

Silly gardener! summer goes,
And winter comes with pinching toes,
When in the garden bare and brown
You must lay your barrow down.

Well now, and while the summer stays,
To profit by these garden days
O how much wiser you would be
To play at Indian wars with me!

[Stirner]

Hegel, a close friend and schoolmate of the poet Holderlin, and who knew Goethe quite well, noted that "the philosopher must have as much aesthetic power as the poet... poetry was the teacher of mankind." (see H.S. Harris HEGEL'S DEVELOPMENT, p 253ff.)

Hegel even tried his own hand a writing poetry, but found his true voice in the lecture hall.