Why Poetry?

• Author: M. Zapruder
• Title: Why Poetry?
• Published: 2017
• Trivia: Zapruder doesn’t think poetry should be dissected
• ….in a search for its meaning.
• Instead, an understanding of a poem comes to life anew
• “in the mind of each half-dreaming reader.” (Ecco)

Conclusion:

1. I had the sudden urge to listen to  a poem
2. while making my breakfast oatmeal: ‘Twas the night before Christmas“.
3. It made me laugh.
4. I tried to recite it by heart…but faltered after the first 8 lines.
5. I watched the birds this morning ….and they watched me!
6. A food critic is a ‘thing with feathers’ !
7. I put some blueberries on the birdfeeding table
8. …and just earned my first Michelin star!
9. Time to listen to Thomas Hardy’s  ‘The Darkling Thrush‘ once again.
10. While reading ‘Why Poetry’ by M. Zapruder
11. I stumbled upon Amiri Baraka (1934-2014).
12. His poem ‘Who Blew Up America‘  ( political activist!).
13. I listened to the poem…and it was very powerful. It is a 9 minute video
14. …but the ending did surprise me.
15. Then I found  a poem that reminded me of
16. …the seasons changing and the coming of winter:
17. I listened to Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening‘.
18. Now it was time to listen to my favorite Robert Frost poem: A Road Not Taken.
19. I drift off to that ‘poetic state’ and relive
20. …the moment I decided to ….leave my home,
21. ….venture to a new country
22. ….not knowing if I would ever come back.

Last thoughts:

1. Zapruder’s goal was to bring people closer
2. …to the experience of poetry without destroying it.
3. This book  taught me not to be afraid of poetry....but to
4. open my mind and heart to it.
5. It is true what Anne Carson (Canadian poet, 1950) says:
6. Reading a poem is:
7. “..a movement of yourself through a thought…
8. by the time you get to the end you’re different
9. …than you were at the beginning
10. …and you feel the difference”
11. #MustRead