 N Foster
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Posted: 2/19/2004; 3:17:55 PM 
TEXT FOR TODAY
What It Is Like
Poetry is the kind of thing you have to see from the corner of your eye. You can be too well prepared for poetry. A conscientious interest in it is worse than no interest at all, as I believe Frost used to say. It's like a very faint star. If you look straight at it you can't see it, but if you look a little to one side it is there.
If people around you are in favor, that helps poetry to be, to exist. It disappears under disfavor. There are things, you know, human thngs, that depend on commitment; poetry is one of those things. If you analyze it away, it's gone. It would be like boiling a watch to find out what makes it tick.
If you let your thought play, turn things this way and that, be ready for liveliness, altrnatives, new views, the possibility of another world--you are in the area of poetry. A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu. Anyone who breathes is in the rhythm business; anyone who is alive is caught up in the imminences, the doubts mixed with the triumphant certainty, of poetry.
William Stafford, Writing the Australian Crawl, The University of Michigan Press, 1978
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How true this is.
In my case, I listen to poetry in the form of song everyday. I listen and sometime sing along while driving to and from school. But, I don't choose to read poetry on my own. And the last time I wrote a poem was back in 1995 when I had to write a job review of myself to give to my boss. I chose to write it in verse. Must have been decent, as I got a nice raise that year (or at least that's what I'm telling myself!)
But, when a teacher mentions that we are to study poetry.... In truth I get a bit of that sinking feeling. And I notice I'm not the only one. While some enjoy poetry, many people immediately react in disgust. I don't know why that is, but I think William Stafford is on to something in that it can be better appreciated indirectly.
-n.
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