“for meaning beyond this world”
Poetry teaches us how to listen, and poetry helps us know things, like urgency, tenderness and the value of each story.
Carolee Bennett –> poet. artist. crankypants.
Some notes about what poetry teaches us & what we gain from reading
Poetry teaches us how to listen, and poetry helps us know things, like urgency, tenderness and the value of each story.
In high school, this kind of angst made me a normal teenager. Now, however, with arthritis in my knuckles, reading glasses on my nose and crepe-paper skin around my knees, this kind of angst just makes me stuck.
I have no idea where the capacity to drop down into things went, or why it decided to return, but it *is* returning. The “read 100 poems in 12-ish months” effort is accelerating it, for sure. Coming back to the joyful, careful reading of poetry books — and taking time to make some personal notes about each — is helping me find my voice again.