March 21, 2010
Poetic April Returns
I’m getting ready once again for Poetic April, the Pickle Me This celebration of National Poetry Month. During which I plan to read poetry, buy poetry, write here about poetry, post poems and generally enthuse. I come at my enjoyment of poetry from a very pedestrian perspective, so I am pleased to announce that we’ll be having poets guest-posting here throughout the month to educate us all. I do hope, however, that the one advantage of my limited perspective will be that other ordinary readers will also come to see how poetry can speak to us all*.
*Am I allowed to say that? Does poetry even want to speak to us all? If I suggest that I love a collection of poetry for its narrative, for instance, is that a back-handed poetic compliment? Which is not to say that language isn’t what I pay attention to, for language is what a poem is made of, but if I don’t have the background to appreciate the language as experts would say I should, am I even entitled to appreciate it at all?
In my opinion, poetry that is only concerned with language, and not content, is not worth my time reading. I go to poetry for nourishment, not nursery rhyme gymnastics.
I think it is important that poetry can speak to the ordinary reader. If it is only coherent to others in the know, or concerned only with the technical wizardry a poem displays, it seems to me that it becomes much like any other kind of academic writing, generally incomprehensible to anyone not on the inside. I love poetry but don’t want to feel patronized if I prefer a style that isn’t in vogue currently, or don’t understand what a poet is getting at in a poem.