The Poetics of Reading and Writing Poetry

Simplicity is often more intimidating than complexity, and the confounding of silence more scary than the continuation of noise. Above all else, the average person just wants to be told exactly what to do and exactly what to think, so they can grasp onto some sense of comfort and security.

“Truth is like poetry, and most people fucking hate poetry.”

- Adam McKay, The Big Short

This is one of the most well-known quotes about poetry, shown in the movie The Big Short, in which an eccentric genius spoke the truth about the delusions of the American housing bubble, and was hated by everyone because of it.

The truth is, everything is uncertain, uncertainty can be terrifyingly uncomfortable, and the tendency is to hate whatever reminds us of that fact. Poetry shows us that life is inherently unpredictable, and rather than hating that fact, we can embrace it as a reminder of carpe diem instead. Poems often trigger connections in our brains between very unlikely things. We can let that unnerve us, or we can let that invigorate us.

Prose is assuring. Poetry, on the other hand, may not be assuring at all.

Typically, prose is written to communicate details and describe opinions with the goal of convincing the reader of some predetermined idea. Its goal is usually to inform and entertain, not necessarily to inspire the reader to think for themselves. If you’re an avid reader, after a while you may have started to notice that most prose seem to just be tossing the same salad over and over, only in slightly different dressing. It’s all very comforting, because those stories make sense, and their meaning can be easily understood.

With poems though, you can read it multiple times, be sure you know the definition of every word in the poem, yet still not be sure what it means exactly. The poet says so little, and doesn’t even bother to fill out the entire page, as if they don’t care at all about your approval. Maybe it’s a sign of disrespect, maybe they’re taunting you, maybe they think you’re insignificant. You stare at those few dozen words, as if presented with a silly 50 piece jigsaw puzzle for kids, but for the life of you cannot solve it in its entirety.

Learning to appreciate poetry requires a completely different skill set than appreciating prose. It requires you to stop trying so hard.

The key then, is to stop trying to make the poem work for you, and just let it be, and you will feel a profound difference. Poetry is about the experience, not the destination. It’s more about feeling the words than precisely analyzing them. You can read a poem, have no idea what it means, not let it bother you, be okay with whatever thoughts and feelings it offered you in that moment, and move on with delight. Poetry is at ease with uncertainty. It does little yet accomplishes a lot.

Poets know it’s okay to start writing a poem without full certainty on where they want it to end up. Whenever they’re sparked, perhaps by a sight on a walk, or a lyric in a song, they just sit down and write it down. They bravely put pen to paper without knowing where they’re going with this, and then just write their way into a poem. They try not to let their ego get in the way too much, to be too concerned about how the poem will make them look, and what if that particularly harsh and critical person saw it, and all those other self-imposed hindrances that creators may struggle with.

Poetry may not be reassuring, but it can be refreshing. Instead of telling you what to think exactly, a poem inspires you to think abstractly, to squeeze your own creative juices. The experience of poetry is intended to be a journey of discovery for both the reader and the poet.

The goal of reading poetry isn’t to come to a verdict about what exactly was meant by the poet at the time of the writing. There is no goal. The intention is simply, discovery.

Reading and writing poetry is a training in letting go of craving for resolution, a practice in no longer being bothered by ambiguity, a meditation on appreciating the beauty of nuance.

Poetry can be experienced not just through reading, but also through general sight, sound, and touch. Every poem has a distinct look, and some poets purposely arrange the words to convey visual significance and imagery.

When you read a poem out loud yourself, or hear it read by someone else, whether in recording or at a live event, the experience of the poem can be completely different.

You can copy a poem on paper, and as you write out the lines, feel the same movements in your hands that the poet went through at their time of composition.

Some people enjoy memorizing poems, and in doing so, make it a part of themselves, so they always have something beautiful on their mind.

Poems can be messy, raw, confusing, and seemingly pointless. Poems are just like real life. They’re not perfect stories. They’re the truth. And yes, that’s why most people fucking hate poetry, because doing the opposite requires the difficult task of seeing clearly, acting genuinely, and remaining hopeful.

Lovers of poetry are, in truth, lovers of uncertainty.

Of course not all poems are the same. There are the romantic poets, the metaphysical poets, the autobiographical poets, the storytelling poets, and many more. Some poems can be a bit cheesy, like those I-love-you-so-much-why-do-you-hurt-me ones. Some poems can be a bit depressing, like those everything-is-the-worst-and-there-is-no-hope ones. Some poems can seem like the ramblings of a melodramatic teenager. Some poems may not have much wisdom or style. Regardless, the writers of these poems still benefit from the emotional release of genuine self-expression, and their readers benefit from seeing their own raw emotions reflected in others, and feel the warmth of universal connection in our basic human nature.

So really, the value of poetry is immeasurable. Even if you write poems that you never publish and never intend to share with anyone, its value is real to you, because it was nourishing for your soul. And who knows, maybe after you pass from this world, someone will find your poems tucked away in a drawer, publish them on your behalf, and your poems will gain profound influence without you even knowing, as was the case with Emily Dickinson.

Many poets don’t actually care about gaining mass appeal, and would rather publish a book of poetry that is genuine to their personal identity which only sells 100 copies than a profit-oriented one that sells 100,000 copies.

There are also many poets who write about very common topics like love and loss, without focusing so much on nuance, but rather on bold confessional vulnerability. Poets like these know how to harness the spirit of the times, and know how to be painfully inviting. In a way, they are successful because they know how to sooth readers on topics of immense uncertainty through uplifting poetic acceptance.

Poetry is a foundational expression of spirituality, of inclusion. In poetry, everyone can be free to be themselves and be of value.

Sure, poetry can bring you to some wildly conceptual unhinged places, but in appreciating poetry, we train in relaxing in uncertainty. So go ahead, be yourself and be free. Read a poem, write a poem, and live like a poet.