I am not one of those people who writes or reads poetry compulsively. I have to be creative, else I am half myself, but the media in which I am creative vary widely at any particular time. Still, there is something about poetry that keeps drawing me back. It helps that writing poetry can be so low tech - pen and a mini notebook is enough to keep me going for weeks at least - but there's more to it than that.
Expressing a concept, an experience, an emotion, or a particular perspective through the medium of poetry clarifies and condenses it. It can make what would otherwise be obscure accessible; it turns the private public and the public personal; it offers an alternative to prose that draws on linguistic effects to bring out the full power of individual words. Poetry is communication using as many channels as possible; it is love and mastery of language both.
In others' work, I am drawn to poets who surprise or delight me with their patterns of diction, the way they unlock their 'word-hoard'. I am in the odd position of writing more poems than I read (I feel like my work would likely improve if I reversed that ratio), so POETREE has been an introduction and a siren song both to a broader world that I am really still just beginning to explore.
Good ways to share love with non-poetry enthusiasts would include introducing them to the delight of memorizing poems and hearing them recited skillfully from memory. So often I feel like what gets in the way is a matter of technical reading comprehension; hearing poetry aloud bypasses any lingering literacy hesitations and emphasizes any inherent musicality in the lines. The reader/listener is aided in their comprehension by the extra channels of emotion and tone added by the reciter and can thus relax into the experience of the poem without worrying so much about whether they fully 'understand' it.
I also like broadening people's definitions of what poetry is. (Is it words on a page? on a bathroom wall? on a screen? in the air? Or perhaps a certain combination of autumn leaves glowing red and orange and yellow against a painfully blue sky, or the arresting song of nightingale, or the way a dancer moves down the grocery aisle at 4pm on a Thursday evening when you did not think there was grace to be found anywhere anymore.)
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On a side note: I like how you challenge the distinction I've been making here at POETREE between being a poetry enthusiast and being a poet, amateur or otherwise. Is it possible to be a poet and not be a poetry enthusiast? What does it mean to be a poet besides being one who writes poetry? Is it an occupation, a hobby, a way of looking at the world, some combination thereof or something entirely different? Food for thought.
-- Wow - this turned into a mini essay. Good questions, alee_grrl! -
some thoughts
Expressing a concept, an experience, an emotion, or a particular perspective through the medium of poetry clarifies and condenses it. It can make what would otherwise be obscure accessible; it turns the private public and the public personal; it offers an alternative to prose that draws on linguistic effects to bring out the full power of individual words. Poetry is communication using as many channels as possible; it is love and mastery of language both.
In others' work, I am drawn to poets who surprise or delight me with their patterns of diction, the way they unlock their 'word-hoard'. I am in the odd position of writing more poems than I read (I feel like my work would likely improve if I reversed that ratio), so POETREE has been an introduction and a siren song both to a broader world that I am really still just beginning to explore.
Good ways to share love with non-poetry enthusiasts would include introducing them to the delight of memorizing poems and hearing them recited skillfully from memory. So often I feel like what gets in the way is a matter of technical reading comprehension; hearing poetry aloud bypasses any lingering literacy hesitations and emphasizes any inherent musicality in the lines. The reader/listener is aided in their comprehension by the extra channels of emotion and tone added by the reciter and can thus relax into the experience of the poem without worrying so much about whether they fully 'understand' it.
I also like broadening people's definitions of what poetry is. (Is it words on a page? on a bathroom wall? on a screen? in the air? Or perhaps a certain combination of autumn leaves glowing red and orange and yellow against a painfully blue sky, or the arresting song of nightingale, or the way a dancer moves down the grocery aisle at 4pm on a Thursday evening when you did not think there was grace to be found anywhere anymore.)
==
On a side note: I like how you challenge the distinction I've been making here at POETREE between being a poetry enthusiast and being a poet, amateur or otherwise. Is it possible to be a poet and not be a poetry enthusiast? What does it mean to be a poet besides being one who writes poetry? Is it an occupation, a hobby, a way of looking at the world, some combination thereof or something entirely different? Food for thought.
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Wow - this turned into a mini essay. Good questions,
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