Poetry: Reading It

Article and photo* by Gabriela Gueorguiev 

Many people admire poetry. They read it on their social media feeds, write it in their journals, and say that things are “poetic” when they seem artistic, meaningful, obscure or interesting.

 I’m a bit sensitive about the overuse of the word “poetic,” because poetry can be so much more than that. Yet, also so much less. Poetry is a thing of its own. There are poets who focus solely on the mundane, poets who focus on the beautiful, and poets who focus on the complicated. I’ll take a deeper look into different poetry styles and how to understand them from a philosophical point of view in my next article.

But for now, I want to help you understand poetry, and open you up to new places to find it. I want to recommend to you the classic poets that are a joy to read, just as much as the new poets who are working to make changes. And I want to encourage you to not only admire poetry from a distance (like I used to) but to step towards it. 

Because there is a world of poetry that I didn’t know existed until I took a poetry class at York. The worst part is that I didn’t know, that I did not know, that it existed.

So, on that note, here are a few things you should know about poetry...

Tips for reading poetry:

  • Read it slowly

  • Reread words and lines

  • Reread the whole poem

  • Come back to it in a few days

  • Be ready for it to challenge you

Places to find fresh, new poetry:

Literary Magazines

  • Each issue has a mixture of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and art.

  • High-quality content (they get countless submissions and only publish the very best).

  • If you’re interested in being published one day, it’s a great place to see what’s out there in the Canadian writing scene, and to get inspired by it.

  • Canadian literary magazines I enjoy include: The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, and Contemporary Verse Two.

Poetry Chapbooks

  • Small publications of poetry, less than 40 pages.

  • Less expensive than buying standard poetry books (and can be more unique too!).

  • A Toronto-based chapbook press that I ordered from recently and liked: Anstruther Press.

Example:

Here are the first few lines from the poem “On Some Good Days” by Alison Braid, from her chapbook Little Hunches pictured above:

“Mornings raise up on stilts

and stalk away. There’s a tractor,

a dog in dandelions. A stranger

releases every dollar store 

balloon in the city and blots out...”

Read the whole poem: here

Notice how you have to read it slowly? Notice that the images aren’t always coherent, or flowing perfectly into one another? This can be used often in poetry. This is why the reader must pay attention. And reread, reread, reread. 

When I find myself getting lost in a poem, I reread the last few lines to situate myself again. Then, after I give the poem its first full read through, I read the whole thing over a second time. It’s normally by the second readthrough that I can fully take it in.

The most interesting part for me is that when I put a poem away, and then open the book and read it again a week later, it will sound and feel different to me. I have some of my favourite poetry collections sitting on my bedside table, and I come back to them every time I want and need them.

I let my poetry sink in well. Poetry is meant to be enjoyed, and swallowed slowly.


*Pictured

  1. Little Hunches by Alison Braid. Anstruther Press, 2020.

Cover Image: Eugenio Lucas Velazquez, Bogedon: Cover Design: Erica Smith

  1. The Fiddlehead, no. 282, Winter 2020.

Cover Art: Joanne Hunt. Red Skies at Night. Cover Design: Ian LeTourneau

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