Poetry has a place in all 12 months

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. Further, for the most important questions, there are not best bubble-test answers: What is beauty? Truth? Why do the spring flowers hurt us a little as we grow older? How come rainbows make us gawk in awe? Why is it “impossible to say just what I mean?” These (and so many more!) are the powerful questions that poetry asks us not to answer, but to consider. Encountering these questions in as many contexts as possible may be the best route toward keeping enjoyment and enthusiasm alive.

Of course, poetry can do many other things. It can make us laugh and see through different eyes; it can remind us of the powerful pleasure associated with rhythm and word play. It can help us inhabit the mystery of what it is to be alive. Here are a few poems; I hope that you enjoy them.

Tod Marshall, Washington poet laureate

and Gonzaga University professor