Weekend Poetry Date - Week 2

Weekend Poetry Dates are a weekly series of posts reporting on this newbie's exploration of poetry during National Poetry Month (April 2012). See all the posts here.

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 "Look for the poetry that grows under your feet."

~ Rainer Marie Rilke

I haven't written any poetry yet, but I've read more in the past two weeks than I have in the past 10 years. It's interesting to see which ones grab me and which ones don't.

I haven't given much time to any contemporary poets, most of my readings are from typical introductory books like The 100 Best Poems of All Time, or Poems Worth Knowing (that last one's from 1958!). Thanks to Tingle and her amazing list in last week's comments though, I think I'll make a point of branching out into more recent writings this coming week.

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This past week brought a major insight: When it comes to poetry I have no patience.

I tend to get bored easily by super long poems (Longfellow's Evangeline excepted, but that's because I'm Acadian and the story is dear to my heart). Old or complex language loses me and so do complex metaphors.

I guess I like my poetry short and I like it obvious. I didn't know that about me.

Case in point, out of the 100 Best Poems of All Time - and granted I didn't read them all - the one that took my breath away was An Old Pond by Matsuo Bashō, written in the 1600s:

Old pond—

A frog leaps in—

Water's sound.

I see it. I hear it. Can you?