and donât feel pressured to enjoy everything contemporary or all the classics or whatâs popular or what weâre taught in school. thereâs truly no right or wrong way to enjoy poetryâbut not everything appeals to/resonates with everyone so if ur feeling like ur bored or not âgetting itâ that might be an invitation to try a different style!
like i didnât really like ocean vuongâs time is a mother, but i love richard sikenâs crush. i love mary oliver, lucille clifton, and frank oâhara; but i donât like ts eliot, emily dickinson, and allen ginsberg. there are no rules and there are plenty of kinds of poetry to explore! you maybe just havenât found what you like yet.
i also suggest finding accounts on other social media that post poetry and/or sign up for poetry fdnâs âpoem of the dayâ emails. and when you find a poem you enjoy, check out that poetâs collection(s) at the library and read through them! :)
Jul 4, 2024
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Poetry is often short and so we just skim over it and are left underwhelmed. Sometimes we need to make ourselves hear and feel it more, I find that reading the poem out loud really helps with this! Also maybe try to find videos of poets reading their own poems. (Iâve attached a Mary Oliver reading, Iâve never met anyone who didnât like Mary Oliver haha)
Also remember that âpoetryâ is such a huge and nebulous literary form and that you may well dislike a lot of it (I detest so much poetry that I find it a little embarrassing as a poet). Just because you donât like a poem, or a hell of a lot of poems, doesnât mean you donât like poetry, youâve just not found the poems you like. If you find one poem that you like, find more from that same poet. If you like a poet, look at who their fans like, or who the poet has cited as inspiration. Youâre allowed to find lines you love but not like other lines in the same poem. Itâs all worth it when you find one line that hits right through you. âyou do not have to be goodâŚyou just have to let the soft animal of your body love what it lovesâ.
Apr 1, 2024
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i switched out of the english major after 1 year, but i used to be super into reading and writing poetry for most of my teenage years
i am by no means an authority on this, but genuinely, i think itâs just about finding what you personally like. there are so many different styles of poetry and some might connect with you while others donât. i donât think that makes any style objectively bad, itâs just about what triggers an emotional response for you! and that might change at different stages of your life. for example, for a few seasons when i was an incredibly moody and pretentious teenager, i loved charles bukowski. now his stuff does not connect with me at all! and thatâs ok! it was still important to me at the time, and i can appreciate that regardless of how i feel now
tldr; i just think poetry is so subjective and itâs just about what makes you feel emotionally invested at any given time :)
⌠except for the rupi kaur brand of poetry, thatâs just bad
Mar 31, 2024
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1. accept that you can take whatever you want from a poem - I personally care less about understanding exactly what the poet intended, and focus more on: being reminded of moments/people/thoughts in my life, taking advice, and hearing words and phrases that sound nice together
2. start with easy/lovely/understandable poems! esp contemporary ones. have linked a couple below
3. read analysis/reviews of poems you don't understand!
4. read an entire poetry book! sometimes it's useful to see the poems in the context of each other. this is often how they're meant to be read. also sometimes have a authors note or intro which can help
here are some good ones to start with:
- clam by Mary Oliver (abt nature + withstanding life): https://wordsfortheyear.com/2016/09/06/clam-by-mary-oliver/
- after a greek proverb by A E Stallings https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/55235/after-a-greek-proverb
- what I didn't know before by Ada LimĂłn - https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-30712_WHAT-I-DIDN-T-KNOW-BEFORE
- Invictus by William Ernest henley (this is an old one but easy to understand) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51642/invictus
Apr 1, 2024
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being traditionally cool is really quite boring and iterative, and itâs actually very cool and sexy to geek out about something you like or share bits of knowledge on a topic youâre passionate about
Aug 17, 2024
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i had it for a little over a year until i was like wow this is actually terrible! i genuinely think it has negatively impacted society by ruining peopleâs attention spans, having a horrific algorithm, and most of all by the most mind-numbing or outright harmful trends -
fake words that people now use IRL (âunaliveâ), trad wife tiktok, shein hauls, body-focused fitness vids that encourage fatphobia and unhealthy habits, shallow political/feminist theory and queer discourse, âalpha maleâ podcaster tiktok, encouraging overconsumption in general, trends ruining local spots or niche things⌠the list goes on
Aug 17, 2024
a million times cooler than the lackluster âsleekâ tech color palette used today
Feb 22, 2025