Lida Bushloper

I was having coffee with a friend when he quoted a line of poetry which grabbed me instantly but which I did not recognize.  He told me it was Emily Dickinson.  I had never been a big fan of Dickinson, but his sample made me rush home to take a closer look.  I had the volume of her collected poems on my bookshelves and a new reading showed me that there was much more there than I had seen before.  Now I have a new discovery myself. 

It’s these happy accidents that are one more way we can find new voices that speak to us.  You read a quote that forms the chapter heading of a book.  You hear a snippet quoted on a TV show or in a movie.  One of your favorite authors talks about her favorite poet and there you have another lead to follow.  To me, of all the ways to bring new poetic content into one’s life, this is the most delightful.  It’s like discovering treasure, but it’s treaure that is all around us, all the time.  We just have to be ready to spot it and snap it up.

This is how I came to appreciate Bukowski.  He was the subject of an exhibit at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino, Ca.  One item in the exhibit was a broadside of “The Bluebird.”  The moment I read it I was changed from a skeptic to a convert.  Like many converts, I tend to be a little over-zealous regarding his work.  I don’t like this in other people, so I try not to be pushy.  He’s not for everyone.  No poet is.  But with the huge range of styles, tones and forms used by poets past and present, I have confidence there is a poet out there to appeal to nearly every person.  And, lucky me, I have many more poets just waiting to enrich my own life as well.     

I wrote last time about finding poets who speak to you through their work, and mentioned one resource, The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry, edited by Rita Dove.  The people she includes are well known and well established.  There are uncounted numbers of newer, lesser known, perhaps local poets that deserve to be read.  But if they’re unknown or little known, how do you find them?  There are many ways.  One is to visit the website of the Poetry Society of America and click the Poetry link, then Resources, then Poetry Journals.  I admit it’s an overwhelming list, and it doesn’t include them all.  It also doesn’t include the general literary journals which publish fiction and/or essays as well as poetry.  Many of the poetry journals have web sites that include work from their contributors.  A few clicks can tell you whether you want to read more, either of a particular poet or of the journal itself.  Some of the journals are print, some online only, some have both print and web versions.  Some publish only one style or another.  This may sound simplistic to those already plugged into the poetry world.  But maybe not.  It seems like there’s always more to discover or become aware of.  I know I have plenty of gaps in my knowledge.

My hope is that you find one or more journals that you are drawn to enough to subscribe to.  Newer voices and the journals that publish them need support from readers.  Very few newstands carry them these days.  My own current subscriptions are to:  The Lyric,  Measure: A Review of Formal Poetry, and Light Quarterly.  These may not be your preferences.  My wish is that you find the voice or voices that are out there for you, waiting to make a connection.

There are people who want to write poetry.  They are quite willing to tell me so, especially when they know I write poetry and have been published.  My first question to them is often “Who do you read?”  You won’t be surprised (I never am) when they answer, “Well, I don’t actually read much poetry” or some similar (or even worse) answer.  I, at that point, generally steer the conversation elsewhere.  So, is it a requirement that you read poetry in order to write poetry?  I don’t know.  I only know that my own work gets better, opens up, and is stimulated by the work of others. 

To give poetry non-readers the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they just haven’t stumbled across a poet they like.  Their exposure to date has been limited.  Maybe they just gave up at some point, not realizing what a vast and wealthy range of work is out there.  I just bought The Penguin Anthology of 20th American Poetry, edited by Rita Dove.  Including nearly 200 poets, but with short entries (often no more than one poem) for each, it’s a sampler in which almost anyone can find some poet who appeals to him or her.  At least I hope so.  Dove was not able to include every major poet (she mentions Plath and Ginsberg), so I can accept her not including Bukowsky.  But for someone, aspiring poet or not, who doesn’t read much poetry but wants to, this book is a great place to start browsing.  I look forward to finding new people myself.  Me?  Frost, Larkin, Timothy Steele, Bukowski, Billy Collins, Rhina P. Espaillat and many, many more.

Life’s for learning.  What I’m learning now is creating a web presence.  Hard but rewarding.  Being forced to stretch is empowering.  Yes, it really is.  Try it.