Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Poetry has place year round

Tod Marshall, poet laureate for the state of Washington and an English instructor at Gonzaga, offers his thoughts on poetry. April is National Poetry Month:

Although only April is designated National Poetry Month, the art is alive throughout the year. From vibrant slam and spoken word scenes (in our town and elsewhere) to the numerous events at bookstores and local universities (the Get Lit Festival wraps up Sunday) to the linguistic gymnastics of talented hip-hop artists, poetry can be found in many forms.

For some readers, though, poetry is experienced as overly challenging, perhaps even forbidding; I have felt that – even toward the arts, in general. As children, most of us enjoyed the bouncy rhymes of Dr. Seuss; I’d go even further and say that most of us enjoyed the imaginative worlds of reading: from Sam I Am’s rants and Horton’s heard Who to the Ozarks of the red fern, the shores of Narnia, “the brillig and slithy troves.” What happens to that enjoyment? Testing, studying: what Wordsworth called “murdering to dissect.”

I am a teacher, and so let me be clear: careful consideration of a work of art is not inherently a bad thing; however, when study becomes the primary way that we interact with an art form, then the powerful response that a painting, piece of music, or poem can elicit is in jeopardy. More here.

Question: Do you enjoy reading poetry? Which poets (besides The Bard of Sherman Avenue)?



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.