In Today’s Journal
* Why We Don’t Read Poetry 3
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Why We Don’t Read Poetry 3
Well, I’ll tell you something. As I wrote earlier, the knot-headed notion that good poetry must be “interpreted” to be understood is self-centered, haughty, and self-defeating. It’s also foolish.
That and the complicity of the “publish or perish” English-Literature tenure-seeking crowd of the 1970s is what drove away the poetry audience.
To that end, you’ll never hear novelists or short-story writers say the reader must interpret their work in order to understand it.
In fact, you’ve never heard Robert Frost or Howard Nemerov or any other major, accomplished poets say that. Because again, such a notion is ridiculous. For the poet or any other writer, it’s also a stupid, self-defeating thing to say.
Telling a reader s/he has to interpret your writing in order to understand it conveys that s/he has to go to work, and no reader should have to work in order to be entertained.
Demanding that a reader must work to interpret your poem (or story, or whatever) shatters what should be the “Prime Directive” (to borrow Jack Williamson’s excellent phrase) of writers everywhere in every literary genre: Never do anything to thwart the reading and enjoyment of your work.
Poets shouldn’t be so disdainful of readers. And true poets aren’t.
False Poets
Here, I’m not talking about budding, inexperienced poets reflecting their teen-angst in well-intentioned broken lines. I’m talking about alleged professionals who, by definition, should have studied and honed the craft.
Only false poets—those who lay claim to the title Poet but through their lack of knowledge or intentional misuse are unable or unwilling to practice the actual craft—depend on such silly crutches.
Well, they and the aforementioned publish-or-perish university professors who profess that only they know what the poet “meant” in his or her obscure poem.
The great Howard Nemerov once explained the difference: “A poet, upon seeing a rock lying in the road, will write ‘A rock lay in the road.’ The false poet will hoke it up in the translation.”
The mangling of the poetry genre—which the false poet often accomplishes intentionally to create an aura of mystique or obscurity—is just silly. All of it.
If poetry isn’t accessible on the surface, why should any reader hang around long enough to discover any “deeper” meanings? The short answer is, They shouldn’t.
And so they don’t.
To end this discussion of poetry, here’s a little more on the topic in the form of the slightly updated Introduction from my book, The Craft of Poetry: Structure & Sound:
For several years, proponents of my work in poetics have asked my thoughts on poetry, on what constitutes the poem. I’ve culled some thoughts on the topic over the years.
These thoughts are not so much opinion as fact, and not all of them are original to me. Still, they are my observations of what works to render a poem universally relevant, attractive, and lasting—and therefore popular.
I have noticed with chagrin that in many how-to books about poetry the author seems content to assume our audience has left (which it has) and is never coming back (which it most certainly will).
I contend that society’s appreciation and support of poetry can be retrieved and that our audience will return. It is a matter of regaining the trust of the poetry audience, something we collectively shattered with the advent and proliferation of obscure, nonsensical scribblings that some managed to pass off, with the well-meaning and inadvertent help of tenure-seeking professors, as poetry.
The very notion that a poem must be dissected and interpreted to be understood is haughty, foolish, and self-defeating. I know of no other writers in other genres who demand that their work be interpreted.
Any writer in any literary endeavor in any genre only begins a work. The reader, through his understanding, finishes it.
So the poet only begins a poem; the reader finishes it:
- The poet selects an emotion, strains it through the filter of his experiences, and puts it on paper as a poem.
- The reader takes the poem, strains it through the filter of his or her experiences, and derives an emotion from it.
If in ‘finishing’ the poem the reader is confused rather than moved in some way, the poet has failed.
The poet who is serious about craft must learn that one poem written is a dozen, a hundred, a thousand, or a million received and understood, all without the reader’s conscious effort to “interpret” it.
This fact alone benefits the poet in at least two ways: it liberates him to write more and better poetry, and it automatically and radically increases his body of work.
You might consider The Craft of Poetry: Structure & Sound a blueprint to effect the expeditious return of the poetry audience—or at least the return of your poetry audience.
As you read the book, you might begin to sense that it presents poetry as religion or, if you wish, poetry as obsession. That’s fine; nothing great has ever been achieved unless obsession was the catalyst.
So now we come to it: The Craft of Poetry: Structure & Sound is nothing more or less than a turn in the road you have chosen to travel, or else in the road that has chosen you as its traveler.
May this turn incite your passion, ignite your obsession, and steer you toward excellence in the craft.
Back tomorrow with a closely related post on “The Structure of Literary Genres and the Modes of Delivery of the English Language.” This is something every writer in English should know. Talk with you then.
Of Interest
Teachable Having Issues… And Covers Another before/after cover for you to study.
How to Write Great Taglines in Seven Steps Not vetted.
FREE Book in PDF: Selected Poems Clicking the link will effect an automatic download.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 940
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 940
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for February………………………. XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for February.…………………. 22710
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 42300
2026 consumable words………………… 42300
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29