Poetry

How to Enjoy Poetry

"Poetry makes possible the deepest kind of personal possession of the world."

"True poetic practice implies a mind so miraculously attuned and illuminated that it can form words, by a chain of more-than coincidences, into a living entity," Edward Hirschadvised in his directive on how to read a poem. But how, exactly, does one cultivate such "true poetic practice"? In an essay plainly, promisingly titled "How to Enjoy Poetry," found in the 1985 anthologyHow to Use the Power of the Printed Word (public library) – the same treasure trove that gave us Kurt Vonnegut's 8 timeless rules of writing, and Bill Cosby's 3 proven strategies for reading faster – the poet and novelist James Dickey, winner of the National Book Award for his poetry collection Buckdancer's Choice, offers some timeless and breathtakingly articulated advice:

Dickey begins at the beginning:

What is poetry? And why has it been around so long? … When you really feel it, a new part of you happens, or an old part is renewed, with surprise and delight at being what it is./.../