How to enjoy poetry

It took a long time for me to become a good consumer of poetry. Mostly I saw it as strings of unconnected words that made very little sense to me. Good poetry is very, very hard to find. I know I am not a good poet, for instance, but I keep on trying. Poetry is one of those things that is so sublime and beautiful–when done well–that it can stay with you for days, and some times even forever, but how do you appreciate and enjoy it? This is a continuation of my  previous post on appreciating literature. Here are the basics of poetry appreciation as I see them.  

1) Read it aloud

While you can get away with reading a whole entire novel without ever speaking any of the words in it, that will not do for poetry. You have to recite it, otherwise you will lose it forever. You need to say the words in the poem at least a few times before you can truly let it sink in. 

2) Understand the words

Poets have to find the perfect word to say what they mean. Poetry can’t afford to get lost in vague generalities. It demands perfection, and the lack of it turns it in to dreary dribble. If you don’t understand every word in the poem, you may be missing the whole thing. You need to look every word up in order to make sense of it, and to use it in conversation. Approximations won’t do. 

3) Forget about the meaning of poems

A lot of authors cleverly hide deep metaphor and innuendo in their poetry, but if you are not a literature major, or a professor, there is no need for you to sweat the meaning. Back in school, I had to extract, force, and wring the meaning of poems, but you do not have to. The meaning will come to you. Trust me, your mind wants to find it. Poems, if they are any good, will express what they mean to express so well, you will have a very hard time finding a better way to explain it. It is okay to write about poetry, but writing on the topic is about as exiting as writing about cake. You have to write about it, if you want to make the delicious chocolate confection, but nothing beats eating it. 

4) Memorize the poem

Some times poems will give you a jolt of awe. When this happens, read the poem a few more times. Take it on dates to the park, walk with it, talk to it, and go dancing. Then go to the movies. If you still feel that little jolt of awe after a while, then marry it. Once it lives in your memory, you will find it’s meaning every time you speak it. 

Don’t forget to pay attention to punctuation.

I think memorization is the most important step. I used to go hiking or biking in the chaparral hills of Southern California. When my breath was heavy, and when the sun, and the sage played with my senses, I would recite parts of Song of Myself, and the whole experience became transcendental. My wife loves it when I find a new poem to whisper to her, and my friends are amazed by my smarts when I can quote Shakespeare or Gibran. 

5) Write your own 

I am a bad poet, but I still like to play with words once in a while. I still haven’t had the guts to read my poems in front of a crowd, but I like performing other’s people poetry. Not surprisingly, I love writing haiku. I like what the form does to moments. Learning the forms of poems is a great way to be surprised by yourself and to see why some authors are revered. My wife is an amazing poet, and I love to hear her stuff. I don’t think I’ll ever be as good at her, but that doesn’t keep me from writing haiku. 

6) Go to slams and performances

I go to poetry slams when I can. To be honest, I find most self-proclaimed poets to be arrogant and self absorbed. I can hardly stand the artsy crowd, but once in a while someone will blow my socks off, and they will take me with them on an amazing journey. Tough the distillation is not as intoxicating as the actual experience, check out youtube for poetry slams. They have some pretty decent stuff. Not every performance has to be a slam. Some colleges hold speech competitions, and some times you can go watch them, and even judge them for free, and some of the performances are great. Other performances, like The Raven, or The Night Before Christmas, are seasonal. Finally, you can find some pretty good stuff at renaissance fairs and other gatherings if you keep an eye out for it. 

Finally, if poetry feels weird, keep in mind that you already quote it and listen to it when you sing along to a song. 

I hope that you will find these ideas helpful. I wrote this post because I was inspired by the poetry in The Journals of Enreal. I normally avoid poetry blogs like the pest, but this writer is actually very, very good.

If you want to get started, I’ve added some of my favorite poems to the reading list section of my blog.

How to enjoy literature

Great literature is available everywhere. If you are reading this post, I am sure I can assume that you are interested in finding out more about the classics. The following list of ideas comes from the things  I wish I had known when I first began to explore literature and the classics.

1) Start early

Some studies have shown that reading to children from a very early age can help them to develop their minds in ways that will make them a lot more successful in the future, no matter what their background is. If you have children you  should be reading to them. There are a lot of very good classics for kids out there. Reading aloud can also help you to appreciate them better. Some times I find myself making voices and acting out scenes as I reread some of the same fairy tales my parents used to read to me. It’s embarrassing, but that’s how I learned to speak English. If you need an excuse to read the Grim Fairy Tales, reading them to your kids should be a good start. There are a lot of non western classics for children out there, if you are looking for something alternative to offer your kids. 

2) Read only stuff you enjoy

When I was in school I had to read a lot of books I didn’t like. I even forced myself to read books that I thought would make me smarter. In some cases, the books captured my imagination, but most of the time they did not, and they turned in to a futile journey though dusty and gray shelves. Do not ever read anything just because someone said that it was a classic. Read it because you couldn’t help yourself. Like many other things, literary taste evolves with time. I started with comic books, and worked my way up to some of Shakespeare. I used to not like Emily Dickinson, but I am beginning to love her. Trust yourself, you’ll get to the stuff you need to get to when you are ready. I continue to read what others would consider escapist literature. Escapist literature makes the bulk of my reading experience, but as we’ll see on idea number four, that is a good thing, since it has opened the door to many life changing books. 

3) Do not confuse enjoyment with ease

Although I love science, there are a lot of scientific ideas that continue to elude my untrained mind. It doesn’t mean that I’m stupid, it only means that I need to learn more in order to really understand what the authors are trying to convey. I avoided the science classroom for a long time because it contradicted some of my religious ideas. Eventually, I got over it and found that science was amazing, but that I had a lot to learn. Physics, for instance, was hard. Reading the more scientific works of Carl Sagan, or Charles Seife was very difficult. I had to read only one chapter a day, and I used the wikipedia a lot, but in the end, my view of the universe was completely transformed. Do not let difficulty trick you in to thinking that you may not like a book. 

4) Follow your bliss

This one comes from Joseph Campbell, but I’m going to use my wife as an example. She is a librarian, which means that she has one of those amazing minds that are capable of making connections between things very quickly. It also means that she goes on obsessive literary excursions once in a while. It all may start when we go see a really bad vampire movie, for example. Next thing I know she is reading Dracula again. She may even start researching the ancient Balkan nobility, which eventually may lead her to read some more classics. I recommended you read what you enjoy because it will guide you to deepen your literary muscle. It is nice to find out where science fiction and comics come from. Like Thor? Check out the Edda. Think The Sandman rocks? Check out the Divine Comedy.  Some authors are wellsprings of classic allusions and are worth following. Neil Gaiman, for instance, is very good at leading you down the Rabbit hole. Follow the white rabbit! The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Fables are two examples of culturally rich escapism.

5) Converse with the authors

Keep a journal. The classics are like a letter from the past. Keeping a journal will help you to become a part of the conversation. You can write imaginary dialogs with the authors, or simply jot down your thoughts on them. If you can, find people who have read the same books. A lot of my friendships are based on similar reading habits. I do not talk about the books, but the common references make my conversations a lot of fun. Admittedly, almost all of the aforementioned references fall within the geeky vernacular. I have met a lot of new unexpected friends after finding out that we have a classic book in common. Writing and talking about the great books helps to keep them alive. 

6) Think for yourself

I love Mark twain, and I love Ben Franklin, as well as many other authors, but just because they are wise old men who wrote a while ago, it doesn’t mean that they are always right. Be willing do disagree, ad be willing to be shown new ways of thinking, some times you are the one who is wrong. 

7) Make time

Give yourself time to read, wether on audio, a device, or a book. Find the time. Keep your reading by the toilet if you must, but develop the habit of reading every day. It will spread to the classics if you gently guide it the same way a gardener guides a plant. don’t force yourself, but once you get there, make the time and enjoy the world that will open up before you.

The Jungle Book

But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.
The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book has been a pleasant surprise. I’ve been reading some of the classics lately, and I am tickled  at how good they are. I know that as an English major I should have learned to appreciate literature, but all college gave me were some parameters upon which I had to base my observations. It is true that many of the books I read were very good, and insightful to boot, but I did not read them because I wanted to read them. I read them because I had to. My choices of books were determined by time periods or by literary movement. I think true literary appreciation comes from interacting with the materials in front of you out of love rather than duty. I now read the classics because I know that doing so connects me to the past, and helps me to belong to a rich and exiting lineage of writers.

The reason authors like Neil Gaiman and Neal Stephenson are amazing is because they are aware of their literary heritage. If you want to write you should read the classics, but read them only as they appeal to you, not as you think you should be reading them. Let them catch you when you least expect it. It is true that some of them will require more effort than others, but some of them will speak to you very clearly. I stumbled upon The Jungle Book online, and it caught me. I could not help it but to read it. I was ready for it. Leaves of Grass caught me by surprise also, as well as The Book of Tea, and everything by Mark Twain, and Ben Franklin. I am well read not because I studied literature, but because I stumbled upon it by accident. I tripped and fell over the works of the masters. I hope to continue to spill my mind over the soft and conforthing warmth of those who came before me.

I know how literature is supposed to be classified, and even how it is supposed to be taught. Believe me, I have the student loans to prove it, but there is more to reading than knowledge about reading. I enjoy the classics a lot more now than when I was in college. There is something about letting the books themselves guide you that invites the mind to adventure. 

Like The Jungle Book, there will be other inspiring books. Though I went to school to learn about classification, my library is not in order, but rather based on the whimsical discoveries and connections one can only make by happenstance. Maybe that is the only way to truly enjoy a book. When it demands your attention so loudly, that you have no other choice but to listen to it.