WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.240 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.800 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I talk to people who are new readers of poetry 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:15.000 align:middle line:84% and they really want to know what is the authorized way 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.220 align:middle line:90% to read or receive a poem? 00:00:17.220 --> 00:00:19.140 align:middle line:84% And what happens if in a reading, 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:21.980 align:middle line:84% my mind starts wandering because of something the poet says, 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:24.440 align:middle line:84% and I'm reliving a memory and processing a thought 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.020 align:middle line:84% and the poem keeps going and my response is, 00:00:27.020 --> 00:00:28.840 align:middle line:90% yes, you're in the right place. 00:00:28.840 --> 00:00:34.880 align:middle line:84% That's the beautiful, like multifaceted operation 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:37.480 align:middle line:84% that poems activate for us and we get 00:00:37.480 --> 00:00:40.880 align:middle line:84% better and better at being in all of those places at once. 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:44.040 align:middle line:84% So this is a little passage, a couple 00:00:44.040 --> 00:00:48.430 align:middle line:84% of nearby passages from a chapter called Falling Awake. 00:00:48.430 --> 00:00:51.280 align:middle line:90% 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:53.760 align:middle line:84% Let's see what the subtitle of that chapter is. 00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:58.110 align:middle line:84% Falling Awake: Poetry and the Work of the Unconscious. 00:00:58.110 --> 00:01:04.379 align:middle line:84% To engage with a poem is an active, even a creative pursuit. 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:07.060 align:middle line:84% The narrative or dramatic situation 00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:09.860 align:middle line:84% swells around you, gathering you up 00:01:09.860 --> 00:01:12.860 align:middle line:90% in the poem's emotional weather. 00:01:12.860 --> 00:01:16.340 align:middle line:84% You see and feel the effects of images. 00:01:16.340 --> 00:01:19.500 align:middle line:84% You pay close attention to the ways verbs 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:22.980 align:middle line:84% serve to animate and characterize the scene. 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:25.220 align:middle line:84% You surrender to the language made 00:01:25.220 --> 00:01:28.100 align:middle line:84% music, binding these and other things 00:01:28.100 --> 00:01:30.460 align:middle line:90% into the unity of the poem. 00:01:30.460 --> 00:01:34.340 align:middle line:84% And even as you do all of this to participate fully 00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:37.900 align:middle line:84% in the world of the poem, you're also using the poem 00:01:37.900 --> 00:01:42.340 align:middle line:84% as a means of moving toward other ranges of experience, what 00:01:42.340 --> 00:01:45.540 align:middle line:84% you remember, what you feel, what 00:01:45.540 --> 00:01:48.300 align:middle line:90% you recognize from elsewhere. 00:01:48.300 --> 00:01:51.100 align:middle line:84% Managing all of this at once, you 00:01:51.100 --> 00:01:53.740 align:middle line:84% might find yourself pausing for a moment 00:01:53.740 --> 00:01:56.540 align:middle line:84% to follow a tangent to its conclusion 00:01:56.540 --> 00:01:58.660 align:middle line:84% before turning your attention back 00:01:58.660 --> 00:02:02.440 align:middle line:84% to the forward unfolding of the poem itself. 00:02:02.440 --> 00:02:04.360 align:middle line:90% All of this is productive. 00:02:04.360 --> 00:02:07.960 align:middle line:84% All of this affirms that the experience of reading 00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:13.560 align:middle line:84% is ideally an act of co-activation, even 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:18.560 align:middle line:84% of co-creation, a matter of feeling, thinking, 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:22.200 align:middle line:84% and harmonizing across space and time 00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:27.080 align:middle line:84% with another human whose proxy is the poem itself. 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:31.480 align:middle line:84% What I am describing isn't simply a literary operation, 00:02:31.480 --> 00:02:36.240 align:middle line:84% it's a set of essential life skills, faculties of attention 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:40.560 align:middle line:84% and imagination that fortify us to withstand the ripples 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:43.880 align:middle line:84% and torrents of our own individual and collective 00:02:43.880 --> 00:02:45.240 align:middle line:90% narratives. 00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:48.880 align:middle line:84% When a poem draws observation of the external world 00:02:48.880 --> 00:02:53.000 align:middle line:84% into direct dialogue with its speaker's internal delight 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:56.680 align:middle line:84% or unrest, it is inviting us to exercise 00:02:56.680 --> 00:02:59.600 align:middle line:84% skills critical to the integration of such things 00:02:59.600 --> 00:03:03.100 align:middle line:84% as mind and body, the rational and feeling 00:03:03.100 --> 00:03:09.580 align:middle line:84% selves, and the individual egos, accountability to others. 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:13.560 align:middle line:84% This is why I'm always perplexed by the indefatigable question, 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:15.100 align:middle line:90% does poetry matter? 00:03:15.100 --> 00:03:19.700 align:middle line:84% And now you know what my answer to that question is. 00:03:19.700 --> 00:03:21.940 align:middle line:84% Engaging with the poem is one way 00:03:21.940 --> 00:03:24.780 align:middle line:84% of strengthening our ability to do something 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:27.600 align:middle line:84% with these powerful questions and feelings, 00:03:27.600 --> 00:03:31.940 align:middle line:84% not to freeze or recoil, not to shun or deny, 00:03:31.940 --> 00:03:37.660 align:middle line:84% but to admit, withstand, rethink, even to act. 00:03:37.660 --> 00:03:40.780 align:middle line:84% It's possible that the motivation behind a question 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:43.340 align:middle line:90% like does poetry matter? 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:46.420 align:middle line:84% Arises out of the conception that poetry 00:03:46.420 --> 00:03:49.500 align:middle line:84% is a narrow niche, a selfish respite 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:52.700 align:middle line:84% from the practical demands of day to day life. 00:03:52.700 --> 00:03:58.300 align:middle line:84% But to care about poetry is to listen in earnest 00:03:58.300 --> 00:04:04.080 align:middle line:84% to another person's testimony sorry, 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:06.680 align:middle line:84% and to draw that awareness in toward 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:10.880 align:middle line:84% your own emotional fortitude, imagination, patience, 00:04:10.880 --> 00:04:12.240 align:middle line:90% and empathy. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:14.720 align:middle line:84% To care about poetry is to attend 00:04:14.720 --> 00:04:17.720 align:middle line:84% to a host of complex faculties that 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:23.000 align:middle line:84% equip you to consider yourself alongside and in light 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:27.720 align:middle line:90% of equally worthy others. 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:32.040 align:middle line:84% A big part of this book is demonstrating 00:04:32.040 --> 00:04:37.200 align:middle line:84% readings of various poems that I love, 00:04:37.200 --> 00:04:41.560 align:middle line:84% showing how easy and natural it is to listen to a poem 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:44.560 align:middle line:84% and to build upon it and to think with it. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:48.320 align:middle line:84% But I think that's not something that we'll do here. 00:04:48.320 --> 00:04:51.000 align:middle line:84% But I'll encourage you to go pick up a copy of the book 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:54.600 align:middle line:84% and see what I think of those winter Sundays 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:57.080 align:middle line:84% and Joy Harjo's She Had Some Horses 00:04:57.080 --> 00:05:00.640 align:middle line:84% and other poems that are both contemporary and a little bit 00:05:00.640 --> 00:05:03.230 align:middle line:90% more classic.