Why don't you/didn't you read Poetry?

[oggbashan]

With apologies to Senna Jawa's thread on writing Poetry.

1. Why don't you read Poetry?

2. Why didn't you read Poetry?

3. Why do you read Poetry now?

4. What Poetry do you read?

5. Do you read Poetry aloud? Is that important to you?

I don't expect five answers. Choose the questions you want to answer.

 

[oggbashan]

With apologies to Senna Jawa's thread on writing Poetry.

1. Why don't you read Poetry?

2. Why didn't you read Poetry?

3. Why do you read Poetry now?

4. What Poetry do you read?

5. Do you read Poetry aloud? Is that important to you?

I don't expect five answers. Choose the questions you want to answer.

My answers to start the discussion:

1. I think that some modern poems and poets are too simplistic. They appear to show haste, lack of thought in word choice, and absence of effort. I may be being unfair, but some remind me of Victorian/Edwardian doggerel that any educated person could reel off by the yard. As with stories on Literotica, there are jewels among the poetry dross, but it can be an effort to find those gems, and disheartening/discouraging to read the others.

4. I read many of the classic poets, and some moderns, but our local poetry society produces works that make me want to scream in frustration. They are capable of better but stick to banalities. I don't ever want to read another poem about how wonderful their cat/dog/partner is.

5. I like spoken Poetry. I know that not all poems are meant to be spoken aloud, but those that are/can be appeal more to me than those that are poems by a pattern on a page.

 

[drinkz]

......

 

[Magnetron]

It never occured to me in my youth that poetry was an option. Public schooling in the 70s and 80s was a joke; the schools I attended didn't even acknowledge its existence.

My teeth were cut on amateur poetry after the Internets came along. It's what I still read. I don't bother with anything published.

In fact, one of the very first poets I read around abouts 2004 is still submitting here at Lit. I remember defending something he wrote that was being flamed by a troll.

Which is kinda funny, because I pissed off the same poet a few weeks ago in another poetry forum we co-habitate.

 

[greenmountaineer]

With apologies to Senna Jawa's thread on writing Poetry.

1. Why don't you read Poetry?

2. Why didn't you read Poetry?

3. Why do you read Poetry now?

4. What Poetry do you read?

5. Do you read Poetry aloud? Is that important to you?

I don't expect five answers. Choose the questions you want to answer.

3. I love words and the magic that they can bring in the right combination, but it's not just what I read; it's what I hear in those words said just right(5). Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, particularly the inflected "all God's children" sends a shiver down my spine more than "The Wasteland" ever could.

4. My reading's eclectic. I don't have favorite poets. I have favorite poems.

 

[Angeline]

With apologies to Senna Jawa's thread on writing Poetry.

1. Why don't you read Poetry?

2. Why didn't you read Poetry?

3. Why do you read Poetry now?

4. What Poetry do you read?

5. Do you read Poetry aloud? Is that important to you?

I don't expect five answers. Choose the questions you want to answer.

I think I was lucky to grow up in a family that valued books. Some of my best childhood memories involve libraries and bookstores, and we always had lots of books and newspapers and magazines around. Not much poetry, but some.

I read both classic and modern poems every day. I have favorite poems and poets that I read over and over and I also read a lot about writing poetry. I try to read a lot of new stuff all the time, too, which gives me the sense of what is popular out in the world of those who read poetry (aka students and other poets ). I find reading here and elsewhere online to be inspirational in terms of keeping me going with ideas and experiments.

I mostly read my own poems aloud because I want to be clear in my mind that it sounds aloud the way it does in my head. And in general I love reading aloud and having someone read to me. I read a lot of poetry to my kids when they were little and they loved it. I am convinced they are more aware of language as a result.

 

[Maria2394]

I do read poetry and have as long as I have been able to read. My mother read Poe to me when I was a little child. She also wrote poetry and if she were still alive, I have no doubt that she would be burning up LIt with her works. And she was good!

At any rate, I never found poetry boring, or punishment. I suppose I am lucky that my mom thought of literature as fun, not punishment.

I miss you Mama!

 

[champagne1982]

With apologies to Senna Jawa's thread on writing Poetry.

1. Why don't you read Poetry?

2. Why didn't you read Poetry?

3. Why do you read Poetry now?

4. What Poetry do you read?

5. Do you read Poetry aloud? Is that important to you?

I don't expect five answers. Choose the questions you want to answer.

I read for inspiration for my own composing and as much to explore the rhythms and language used as illustrations of how the poet views their world. I understand the way you describe much of the poetry you're exposed to, Ogg. It can be trite and inconsequential, but perhaps this result is due to those writing having shared experiences and similar environments. It's hard to be fresh when you don't have anything new to share.

I was fortunate to have my extended family live close by when I was little, and visited the generation born between 1890 and 1910 often. Theirs was a world where poetry recitations and reading were daily entertainments, much as live music and theatre often blossomed into after-parties and late lunches. My Great-Uncle Jim was a brilliant mind whose social status and circumstance denied the opportunity of higher education, however, he read voraciously on varied subjects so that much of what he knew, was self-taught.

I remember sitting by the pot-bellied stove in the living room and watching my Uncle Jim perform poems like "Casey At Bat" and "The Cremation Of Sam McGee". He sang many ballads learned when he lied about his age and enlisted in the army and served in the Great War. On some evenings we'd all take turns reading Poe and Burns as well as learning Robert Service's poetry. I remain a fan of the spoken word to this day and have recently returned to the poet community of Second Life.

 

[bronzeage]

With apologies to Senna Jawa's thread on writing Poetry.

1. Why don't you read Poetry?

2. Why didn't you read Poetry?

3. Why do you read Poetry now?

4. What Poetry do you read?

5. Do you read Poetry aloud? Is that important to you?

I don't expect five answers. Choose the questions you want to answer.

I read poetry. I can't really say why. I have read poetry all my life. My father taught me to recite short poems before I could read. I still remember Sandburg's fog's Fog.

The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Another one I remember is this strange piece:

Here's to the land of the long leaf pine
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Here's to "Down Home," the Old North State!

It's the Official North Carolina State Toast. There are four more verses, but I learned only this one. I can recall reciting both for family and friends. I could not have been more than four years old.

The poetry I read without fail is published in the New Yorker magazine. I give each piece a fair chance, but always turn the page, wondering what made this one jump off the poetry editor's desk.

I read poetry aloud whenever someone will listen.

If one lives near a big college there is always someone organizing a poetry reading and I like to sit in. I usually bring a folder of poems and wait my turn. These readings are interesting, because it's mostly young women. sometimes, very angry women. No one is spared. Boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, fathers, etc, even though none are ever present, are the intended audience for a vitriolic monologue. It's not a happy place, but college is stressful and everyone needs a place to let off steam. It's a good place to read sweet love poems. A lot of red wine is ordered after I read.

When one gets away from campus, the nature of poetry readings change. Instead of bars, they tend to be in coffee shops or cafes which do not have a liquor license. Apparently poetry is used as therapy in many rehab programs. The crowd is mostly men and there is a wide age range. The older men usually have a guitar and send songs of their own composition. If a young guy brings a guitar, he sings Leonard Cohen. There is not a lot of angry poems at these readings. It tends to be autobiographical, often regretful, sometimes remorseful. The reader holds a spiral bound notebook in his hand and it's plain there is little editing or revision. I like this kind of reading a little more than the campus type. The audience has been trained to pay attention to the speaker, so they are very polite listeners.

 

[oggbashan]

I read for inspiration for my own composing and as much to explore the rhythms and language used as illustrations of how the poet views their world. I understand the way you describe much of the poetry you're exposed to, Ogg. It can be trite and inconsequential, but perhaps this result is due to those writing having shared experiences and similar environments. It's hard to be fresh when you don't have anything new to share.

I was fortunate to have my extended family live close by when I was little, and visited the generation born between 1890 and 1910 often. Theirs was a world where poetry recitations and reading were daily entertainments, much as live music and theatre often blossomed into after-parties and late lunches. My Great-Uncle Jim was a brilliant mind whose social status and circumstance denied the opportunity of higher education, however, he read voraciously on varied subjects so that much of what he knew, was self-taught.

I remember sitting by the pot-bellied stove in the living room and watching my Uncle Jim perform poems like "Casey At Bat" and "The Cremation Of Sam McGee". He sang many ballads learned when he lied about his age and enlisted in the army and served in the Great War. On some evenings we'd all take turns reading Poe and Burns as well as learning Robert Service's poetry. I remain a fan of the spoken word to this day and have recently returned to the poet community of Second Life.

When Og was young, family gatherings were normally musical entertainments. My father wrote a piece about how daunting his future wife found them. She would have a piece of sheet music thrust into her hand and be expected to sing a capella in four part harmony, sight reading.

I was the only unmusical one, so I did recitations such as Casabianca "The Boy Stood On The Burning Deck". My older relations could do these recitations at a moment's notice e.g. The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God, and much of Kipling's Barrack Room Ballads, but they were at their best with Hiawatha, recited or sung.

My eldest aunt could recite Tennyson for hours, but my great aunts preferred Milton and Blake. My eldest uncle would recite Virgil in Latin in a wonderful bass voice. I lost him when he switched to Homer in Greek but he made Homer sound inspiring.

What I miss now is members of the family giving readings in the Church, always from the King James version. Any member of the family, including me, could be heard better than the Minister because we practised beforehand to a critical family audience. We weren't allowed to get the stress in the wrong part of a biblical verse.

 

[Tsotha]

I didn't read/write poetry because it is mostly about what people think / feel, and what people think / feel is mostly irrelevant (compared to more basic needs, like staying alive) or made irrelevant by duty (to family, country, and so on) and by the meaninglessness of any single human being.