Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. The weekly post goes up every Thursday and bloggers can add their links all week. My book this week is:
An impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for poetry’s accessibility to all readers, by critically acclaimed poet Matthew Zapruder.
The beginning:
"I have a confession to make: I don’t really understand poetry." For over twenty-five years, I have heard this said, over and over in slightly different ways, but friends, family, colleagues, strangers I met in bars and at dinner parties, on planes -- so many people, practically everyone who found out I was a poet. Clearly, there is something about poetry that rattles and mystifies people, that makes them feel as if there is something wrong.
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| The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice |
And here is my Friday 56:
page 56: the author describing his early attempts at poetry:
I carried around a rhyming dictionary, writing terrible sonnets, lousy sestinas, atrocious villanelles, abysmal pantoums. I felt like I was working, and was, which was good, but it was also painful and embarrassing. I didn't realize then that I was doing my own clumsy version of what art students do when they learn to paint. Now, whenever I go to the museum I usually see at least one of them with a sketchbook, copying the great paintings, and it makes sense to me.
I really like the first few chapters. I will probably finish it and write a review next week.
I agree with that beginning wholeheartedly. Happy Easter weekend!
ReplyDeleteInteresting beginning. I often feel as if I'm not grasping the message that the poet intended to deliver. This is a book I would benefit from reading.
ReplyDeleteMy Friday post features excerpts from Buffalo Gal.
I have come to reading poetry late in my life and I often don't understand phrases, but if a line or two speak to me, I feel moved by it. My review and quotes for VOICES
ReplyDelete