Poetry Smoetry – Why Should I Care About Poetry?

We are three weeks into National Poetry Month and I continue hearing people groan about having to listen to, recite or read poems. “Why,” they implore, “must I bother? I don’t care!”

Ah, my metaphoric padawan, you might want to rethink that position!

To begin with, poetry has its roots in history.
Just as a reminder, poetry comes from an oral tradition. Before we could write, we told stories and sang songs. These “tales” were a record of the community, of history, of births and deaths. The anecdotes and the tragedies, everything was oral. And to make it easy to remember, clever rhymes and catchy tunes were used, even a sing-song style to help children remember the difficult and even exhaustive stories.

Celebrations were usually done in music and once again, it was easier to apply a rhyme to help others remember what to say each time. With repetition, as with the oral histories, songs that celebrate events become traditional and provided a sense of community and security. Roots.

Poetry was also a device for relaxation.
Long ago, before there were radios or televisions, phones or Facebook, poems were put into small compact books. These small volumes were easily carried and often found their way to the seaside, on a picnic, in the library or drawing room, at parties and by the beside. Poetry was an abbreviated form of a story that both men and women could share. Read by a practiced voice, it could be delightfully humorous, or scary, or loving. The joy was in the peaceful gathering. Additionally, small volumes were easily used in private for quiet reflection (given that women didn’t care a purse, this was something women could keep in hand).

Poetry was used for social interaction.
Being able to read aloud was an encouraged talent as was dancing or art or needlepoint or cooking. Various “ages” though time have maintained that reading poetry well signified a graceful spirit and mind, a healthy education or even a dramatic talent. No one went to an event without having something poetry memorized or able to be referenced. Up through the 1920’s poetry was standard fare at parties. Today, open mic café’s and beat poetry is making a comeback.

Finally, poetry engages the imagination.
Poets, beyond being historians and entertainers, teach us to see the world in new ways. Words are synthesized, and in their economy of use we discover more succinct visuals, opening our minds to new ways of visualizing, sensing and dreaming of our world. Poetry has a rhythm and flow that binds us to what could be, not just what is. We discover the power of words in both our dreams and our truth. This is the power of imagination and poets understand the power of this tool.

You don’t have to “understand” a poem in order to gain something from it. Often comprehension takes many readings before an “ah-ha” moment is reached. However, while you are reading, you can be feeling the flow, the passing and falling of the words. You can be sensing emotions though the words. Even without a depth of knowledge, poetry can enlighten through the senses and this enhances thinking and imagination. Poetry gives a sense of perspective through the music of the words.

Why should you care about poetry, a literary form that offers so much? No one says you have to be a William Shakespeare groupie. Neither do you need to be an avid follower of the dark deliciousness of Baudelaire and Poe, the satire of Ogden Nash or the love of the Brownings. But when you open yourself to just one poem once in a while, you are giving yourself a gift of truth, of history, of peace and relaxation, grace and adventure. You allow your soul to fly and be enriched.

Samuel Johnson said, “Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.”
It’s the best of both worlds. You don’t have to be a Poetic Jedi and that’s why you should care.

****

Recommended reading: Poems by Agatha Christie (1973) Christie’s first book of poetry, The Road of Dreams, was self-published in 1925.

Paper Bones by me! Contemporary social issues poetry written for everyone and anyone.

_________________________________________________

****The following items will always appear to keep you posted on activities.*****

WIP (Works in Progress): 

– NEW BOOK OF POETRY! – expected release July 2016
– first novel in the Evening Bower series, about vampires and other supernatural creatures
– fictional memoir
– four-part fairy story (part one complete)

On the Desk: (next reading): Soulless by Gail Carriger (#1 in a series)

Off the Desk (book just finished): Burned (Alex Verus #7) by Benedict Jacka

Coming Soon:  Princess Week and Guest Blogger PJ LaRue