What made me think...
... I was smart enough?
We have these friends, a couple, who teach literature... on the college level. The wife of the pear lent me sum books to reed. The first won I tried was two hard.
I may not be smart enough, I thought, to read books that Anna likes.
It was all literary, poetic, and DEEP. I made my way through the best I could, skipping large portions of poetry, because, people, poetry makes no sense to me. I read the 1st stanza and it's like I am reading a different language, which I suppose I am. If poetry is the language of the soul, my soul is a dumb mute.
Moving on... the rest of the books seem to be ok. So I guess I'm SORT OF smart enough, but probably not as smart as Anna. :)
3 comments:
you are not stupid. Poetry is an acquired taste like classical music. It really is a different language and it takes a long time to "get it" if you didn't grow up with it. You really have to slow down and almost meditate to understand good poetry. It helps to memorize some poems - kind of like practicing and performing a piece of classical music helps you to understand it. I am now just beginning to understand it, and that's after two college courses and the 15 years following... but it's been worth it. I think poetry and prayer help each other, at least for me, so it's been in many ways a life-saver for me in teaching me to pray and to LISTEN - listening to God and listening to poetry seems to use the same mental "muscles" or something.
A good book of poetry to start with is Garrison Keillor's "Good Poets" - he has about 200 poems by different authors, grouped by subject.
By the way I've been keeping up with
(and enjoying) your blogs ever since you emailed me the links, and have just been too lazy to email you back. Thanks for virtually keeping in touch :o)
Thanks, Kelly! I will look for the Garrison Keillor book for my summer reading.
Yes, the slowing down is hard for me. I like the story to MOVE ALONG. Interesting the link you make between prayer and poetry. I'll think about that. :)
I think you're very funny. Let's be friends. :) We could get together and read deep literature (like Harry Potter).
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