One of my insane fears is that I will some day dive into water (even fresh water is under suspicion) and at the last minute see the wide open mouth of a shark as I go in, head first. My mother, she is afraid of poetry. Not that it will eat her head, but that it will humiliate her, make her feel stupid. Ciardi used to say "how does a poem mean" as opposed to "what does a poem mean" - it has been a while since I read the piece, but I think he was angling for an approach to reading poetry that calmed some of the anxiety people can feel about poetry, a view that tried to ease them away from worrying so much about what the poem was trying to say and focused on the music, language, rhythm. I thought of all this as I talked with my mom about poetry a night ago - about her wishing she could "get it" but never feeling like she "got it" - which is why she does not read it.(The recent conversation at John Gallaher's Blog about "accessible" poetry comes to mind as well.)
I shared some poems with her that I thought might help demystify poesy:
1. WCW's cat stepping over the flower pot
2. Lorine Niedecker's You Are My Friend
3. Yeat's When You Are Old
4. Rolf Jacobsen When We Sleep
5. Harry Martinson's No Name for It
6. Robert Graves' Down Wanton Down (just kidding about that one)
7. Denise Levertov's The Batterers
Also, I told her there were plenty of poems I did not 'get' which delighted her a little too much. I read some Geoffrey Hill to her which I love, but do not always 'get'. In the end, the deal we made was this: I would put together a collection of poems (very fancy photocopies expertly stapled together) that won't humiliate her, and she agreed to give them a try. That is where you come in (if you care to).
If you wanted to put together a list of poems to share with someone who had spent the last 40 years of her life convinced poetry is beyond her, which poems would you gather?
Send me poem titles, or the poems themselves if you have access to them. I thank you. My mother thanks you.
7 comments:
Keith--I think for "accessibility" (and I loathe the way that word is misused sometimes) you can't go wrong with: CK Williams, Linda Gregg, Jack Gilbert or James Wright. Gilbert's "The Great Fires" is a totemic book for me. I'll be happy to send you some of the poems from it.
RJ
Introduce her to Robert Frost, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Ellen Bass or Diane Ackerman. Once she falls in love with the music, language, and rhythm some of their poems, she may be more willing to tackle the more difficult...
How can you go wrong with Wright (groaner). Yes, A Blessing is a good idea. I found a Linda Gregg essay yesterday ... the Art of Finding.
Sound interesting? I can send you a link. Nothing you don't know. Thanks for offering the Gilbert, but we have that covered.
Pauline, thanks for your input. Any particular poems by Collins, Bass or Ackerman? I don't know their work.
P.S. remember to answer with a haiku :)
Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Hmmm...
Haikus limit words.
Colins, Bass or Ackerman
Derve odes at least...
Seriously - any of their poems are perfect for igniting a love of poetry. Collins is a former US poet laureate, Ellen Bass' Pray for Peace is powerful poetry, and Ackerman's School Prayer is uplifting.
Ahhhh what a pun, Keith.
I think I've read the essay,
but would like the link.
Aaaaargh....I once carried on a semester's worth of haiku emails with a professor during grad school. I've obviously lost some ground there.
I'll type up a few poems and send tonight or tomorrow afternoon.
Your mother might like Mary Karr's "A Blessing from My Sixteen Years' Son," in SINNERS WELCOME, her latest book. But you've received a lot of excellent suggestions. What about van den Heuvel's HAIKU ANTHOLOGY or Ross's HAIKU MOMENT or Hass's THE ESSENTIAL HAIKU, three anthologies for exploration?
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