Bah, learn to sail, Percy.
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Yep. Because we’re taught about dead old white guys who lived hundreds of years ago and whose poetry had mold growing on it when they were still alive. The poetry that gets taught in school usually doesn’t have much literary merit. We think it does because we’re taught that it does but we’re not taught how to think critically about poetry or about how to appreciate it.Nobody is really taught about poetry that challenges the mind and the creativity, and about poetry as a living art form.
Yeah, I can. But I’m not most people. “Most people” gravely disappoint me.
See what I mean?
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I’m someone who is interested in getting re-interested in poetry. What would you suggest? I’m very, very tired of old dead white guys as the underserved standard for everything.
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I’m with the magazine here. Creating art is an act of faith. You have to believe that the world will in some way be a better place with your creation in it, and accept that you may never have evidence of that.
Which combination of words will echo hauntingly in someone’s mind? Which metaphor will reframe someone’s understanding of their world, their child, their partner, their electorate? The artist can’t know, but creates nonetheless.
Anyone who denies their art’s potential power - or worse, claims to know its boundaries - lacks the faith necessary to head an arts platform. The church should be run by a believer.
(FWIW, I guess one could argue (and some have) that choosing to continue living each day requires a similar leap of faith. Anyone could run the numbers and come up net zero or negative.)
YMMV, but here’s my method:
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Grab about a dozen poetry anthologies for a couple bucks a pop at a used bookstore (or, for extra cred, find them abandoned on subway platforms or left in community library boxes if you have the means);
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place them in various spots around your home and/or workplace;
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develop the habit of reading a poem instead of looking at your phone every time you have the urge to reflexively check social media (this is the hardest part, but the dopamine payoff is equivalent or greater);
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When you read a poem that makes you feel something, seek more poems by that poet.
I’ve also enjoyed the Poetry Foundation’s daily poem emails - they highlight a pretty diverse selection of poets. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
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Amanda Gorman
Andrea Gibson
Ai
Rita Dove
Ocean Vuong
Li Young Lee
Elizabeth Bishop
Mary Oliver
Sarah Kaye
Nikki Giovanni
Saul Williams
Natalie Diaz
Okay, that’s a start! Some you might like, some not, of course.
Lots more to sample here:
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Jinx!
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@PaddyBeeSting and @milliefink thank you both for your suggestions! I’m trying to diversify my reading in general, and you’ve given me a good start and some habits to (try to) implement.
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There was a young poet named Rose,
Who projected all of her woes.
She felt a bit better,
Until she got this letter,
And discovered her job was closed.
IANAP
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I suspect one of my wife’s high school teachers was correct when he claimed that the space that poetry used to hold of the mind and hearts of people is now occupied by song lyrics.
As for poetry now, I suspect that most of it is consumed by people who also write poetry (certainly it’s my wife who buys the poetry collections in our household.) And this fact allows it to be far deeper and interesting than a medium meant to be consumed and enjoyed by the unwashed such as myself. (I can make head or tails out of maybe one in four poems by Adrien Rich or Margaret Atwood much to my wife’s frustration - little worse than seeing a beauty that your spouse is simply blind to).
Just noticed this name on the list. Over the past two years he’s become one of my favorite music artists. Didn’t realize he released a book of poetry. Definitely starting there.
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He’s a live performance “slam poetry” legend too. So are Sarah Kaye and Andrea Gibson.
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dis poem will not change things
dis poem need to be changed
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Is it a now thing, or just the end of a odd period where they were different?
Poetry and music have been intertwined for thousands of years. In antiquity, poems were often sung: the first lyric poets in ancient Greece performed their work to the accompaniment of the lyre, and the oldest anthology of Chinese poetry, the Shijing, was a collection of songs. In southern Europe in the middle ages, the popularity of troubadour poets granted them unprecedented freedom of speech and social influence in their time, and their lyrical work would influence European poetry for centuries. The ballad form continues to be a common form for both poems and songs. Emily Dickinson famously wrote her sometimes irreverent poems to the rhythms and forms of church hymns, and more recent poets such as W.H. Auden, J.D. McClatchy, and Eileen Myles have written successful opera libretti.
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There was a period, during punk and post-punk, and the proliferation of “alternative” comedy that, in the UK, saw quite a lot of poetry performance either as part of gigs or solo.
John Cooper Clark, of course; Benjamin Zephaniah; John Hegley; Linton Kwesi Johnson; Lemn Sissay; Billy Bragg; Attila the Stockbroker.
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Craig Charles.
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Aaaand…
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Too soon?
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Fresh poet’s heart jerky! Get it while it’s chewy, fresh jerky here!
What?
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