Poetry

William Logan in the Times ruminates on the place of poetry in contemporary life:

You can live a full life without knowing a scrap of poetry, just as you can live a full life without ever seeing a Picasso or “The Cherry Orchard.” Most people surround themselves with art of some sort, whether it’s by Amy Winehouse or Richard Avedon. Even the daubs on the refrigerator by the toddler artist have their place. Language gainfully employed has its place. Poetry will never have the audience of “Game of Thrones” — that is what television can do. Poetry is what language alone can do.

I have recently started reading poetry again after a hiatus of about 15 years. Basically since graduate school in English literature, which drove my previous love of poetry completely out of me. It has been a slow and lovely remembering of the ways language can be harnessed for deep meaning and pure aural pleasure.

I have been remiss in not reading poems to my children.