Audio

There are many that argue that poetry is more properly enjoyed aloud. My geographical circumstances have somewhat deprived me of the joy of hearing authors read their own work with any regularity, but when I'm reading something and the words start singing, I read it out loud to myself. I think Shakespeare really sold me on this. There are moments when you read Shakespeare and the text demands to be heard. I thought maybe you would like to listen to a few read by the authors. (The first two may require that you close your eyes and concentrate.)

Friday's Child by W.H. Auden
Riddle by Charles Simic
Forgetfulness by Billy Collins

Sometimes they give awards

This year the Pulitzer prize for poetry was won by poet W.S. Merwin for his book The Shadow of Sirius. Something that I haven't mentioned because it seems like you should know, is that poets publish books. I keep a journal in my office drawer so that I can write down poets I would like to explore when I have time. Sometimes I go on-line and order a book from a specific poet. When I visit the big cities or small cities, if they have a nice book store I go to the poetry section and look for a new book. It takes a pretty special bookstore to carry a good selection of poetry, but when I find one it's such a joy.

Here's a list of the the Pulitzers for poetry books over the years. And here's a poem from this year's poet:
Native Trees by W.S. Merwin

I was listening to Bookworm on the way home

Tonight on the radio was a little conversation about Whitman. Here's one of the poems they read:

The Learn'd Astronomer

some of my girls

Sometimes you find random poems. You will read a "poem of the day" and think to yourself, "I really like that poet." Then you spend the rest of the afternoon reading other things that they've written. These are some of my girls:

A Favor of Love by Molly Peacock
The Enigma by Anne Stevenson
The Riddle of the Shrink by Nuar Alsadir

In translation

If I started over, way over, I would learn a foreign language at a very young age. Then I would read poetry and translate into English... or whatever language I chose.

When I lived in KC someone loaned me a copy of Garcia Lorca poetry and I had to return it when I left. (There's a side story to that which I wrote and deleted... if you want an odd little quip ask me about it sometime when you see me). I was actually using a lot of Spanish in my job at the time and reading the Spanish poetry sort of helped immerse me more in the language. Mostly, I learned a lot of impractical Spanish words. Practicality was never my thing anyway.

Arbole, Arbole by Federico Garcia Lorca ( I never learned how to do accent marks on the keyboard... sometime someone should show me how).

It's nearly the end of Easter today. I hope you rejoiced.

Some poems take a few readings before their meanings are clear. Because poetry is a shorter literary form it allows several re-readings. So I give you one that I am still thinking about:

A Dirge by Thomas Merton

one holy one unholy

A Holy Sonnet from John Donne: At the Round Earth's imagin'd corners
An Unholy Sonnet from Mark Jarman: Unholy Sonnet 11

And here's one for Holdie

In undergraduate, my creative writing teacher in poetry said once that he would like to have an entire year to teach the poetry creative writing class. First semester the class would memorize poetry and second semester he would let us begin writing. It's been a long time for most of us since we've memorized a poem (though if Ted is your father, I think that isn't so true). It might be a good month to try it. It's good for your mind to challenge it every so often.

Others, at fancy places like the New York Times, are suggesting that you do the same. I'm not sure that memorizing poetry will suddenly make jogging pleasurable, but I am confident it will improve your writing.

So here's the poem my mother made us all memorize:
Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

And here's one for Holdie:
How to Play Night Baseball by Jonathan Holden

A classic

Who spells Tyger like that? William Blake, that's who.

National Poetry Month

This article from Newsweek states that poetry readership is at a 16 year low. Remember the hay day poetry had back in 1993? (I write, I don't do math so if I counted wrong on that number, it just illustrates the point that I was reading poetry back then and avoiding math classes).

Here are my personal 10 reasons that you should be reading poetry:

1. It's short. One small poem will take you 2 minutes to read and give you a full day's serving of thought. A long poem can take you an hour to read, but it will probably take you a week to digest. A full week of thoughts!?! Yes, my friends, that is what poetry can do for you.
2. It can express in a few lines feelings that you never thought anyone would ever be able to find words for.
3. It's a quick pick-me-up during your day. You can't sit in the office and read a novel or a short story, but you can click your way to a couple of poems through the internet, read them, and have your day softened, deepened or enlivened.
4. There is a poem out there for everyone. Really. Poems can be plainspoken and straightforward. Poems can be layered and obscure. Poems can be funny or sad. If you want reading about religion, love, moms, death, life, spring, sheep, horses, the devil, war, peace, nothingness... there's a poem waiting for you to find it.
5. Haiku, sestina, sonnet. It can be an exercise in form. But if it's good, it will strike you with its substance.
6. Poems utilize words in every possible way. The sounds, the etymology, the homophones, the euphemisms, the misunderstanding, the spelling, the look on the page of a each word may be a part of the poem-- or not.
7. When a poem is read out loud and it says something great, the room is quiet just like when a great piece of music has been performed.
8. You can't write a novel for an occasion, but you can write a poem.
9. A poem makes you feel the experience just as much as it makes you see it.
10. I just like poetry. I think everybody should like it. I think it's silly that people will spend time reading about whatever MSN or Yahoo puts in its feed, but people don't take a minute to read something as wonderful as a poem.

Hey! Here comes a poem now:

Saint Francis and the Sow by Galway Kinnell