Encountering Poetry

 In early February, I had the opportunity to attend a poetry event connected to a Great Books class that I am auditing. The presenter, Joshua Sturgill, is a local, published poet connected with Eighth Day Books, my favorite bookstore. I attended in person, took many notes, and asked many questions. It was a fantastic experience and I'd like to record my takeaways here.

Itinerary

Sturgill introduced himself and gave a lecture on what poetry is. He took questions throughout and at the end of the lecture, and then moved to the second part of his presentation, which included the reading/recitation of three nearly-completed poems that will be included in a soon-to-be-published collection of new poetry called "Now a Major Motion Picture".

Part 1a: Introduction and Poetry Theory

Sturgill explained that he is an Orthodox Christian and has a master's degree in what I think he said was Asian/Eastern literature, or something along those lines. (I'm kicking myself for not writing down exactly what it was.) The way I benefited most from this lecture was what I would call his version of poetry theory. I considered this theory to be his philosophy on what poetry is; insofar as it is a philosophy or perspective, I think it is something that can be adopted or not. However, it is a perspective that made lots of sense to me and that I think has really opened up some vistas into appreciating poetry.

Sturgill said that the characteristics of poetry are as follows:

- poetry recognizes the limits of language

- it seeks to communicate truth in a limited form

- it is analogical

    a. [x] is itself because it is like another thing (analogy)

    b. it is interested in the relationship between things

- relationship is key

    a. for example, epic poetry: composed by the bard for a community, recited within a community context

    b. "A good poet speaks to and for the community." -Sturgill

    c. "Poetry becomes the property of the community once it's presented." -Sturgill

- poetry is concerned with sounds, shape, and meter of words; therefore, it is necessarily meant to be heard

This poetry theory means so much to me because it gives direction to understanding and appreciating poetry. Its a far cry from my literary criticism course in college, which very much seemed to approach literature and poetry with the perspective that they can mean whatever we think they do, so long as we have evidence to back it up. With Sturgill's lecture, I discovered a way past the stultifying subjectivism of personal interpretation of poetry. 

"What does the poem mean?" 

"Who knows?" we respond. "Does it matter, if we can make up any meaning we want?" 

Just having the "key" that poetry is analogical enables me to feel like I can better appreciate many poems.

Part 1b: Other Random Notes

- up to 2/3 of Holy Scripture is poetry

- lots of early Church writings are poetic

- the ancient world didn't divide between poetry and prose; we have a more artificial delineation nowadays

Part 1c: Suggestions

Suggestions for appreciating poetry:

- slow down; poetry deserves your time

- read it together, in a community

- get to know one poet at a time

- if one wants to get into poetry, obtain collections of poetry (especially "best of" collections)

- My question: How can we appreciate the poetic sense of Holy Scripture when we can't appreciate the rhyme, meter, etc. of the translations? How do we develop the poetic sense of Scripture?

    a. Answer (from professors): Immerse yourself in the Scriptures, read the Church Fathers (Patristics)

Suggested poets that Sturgill enjoys reading (not all-inclusive):

- Ted Kooser

- Gregory Orr

- Paul Mariani

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

- C. P. Cavafy (modern Greek poet)

- George Seferis (modern Greek poet)

Suggestions for writing poetry:

- Don't be afraid to put away a poem for a while and come back to it

- I think there were other suggestions, maybe including reading other poets, but I can't remember them

Part 2: Reading of Poems

A few takeaways:

- It's really cool to hear the poet read his poems

- I liked listening to the poems two times through to begin with, one time reading through it, the other listening and considering

- Having the background of how the poet developed the poem was really helpful to me understanding the poem. I wish all poems had that sort of context

- I learned one doesn't necessarily "get" a poem completely - I thought I did for one, but Sturgill said that he still quite doesn't "get" the poem. That was a learning moment for me - but it doesn't change the fact that multiple analogies clicked for me at a certain moment, so in one sense, I did "get" it a bit better.