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Blog Entry 8 of 17 It's keeping me awake
Sometimes the great books keep me up half the night; sometimes it's the best sellers. Lately, it's the politics.

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The trouble with poetry - Not!

Contributed by: Irma Sturgell   on 11/8/2006

Book addicts worry about running out of good reading material. They scan bestseller lists, read reviews and pile up books as insurance against a printer's strike. They also join book clubs and are sometimes members of several book clubs. I try to stick to one, but am often tempted to branch out into library book clubs or bookstore book clubs to try my luck with strangers.

My book club (dubbed "The Mile High and Very Deep Book Club) has been meeting since September 1999, when we started with our first book, Mitch Albom's, Tuesdays with Morrie. We meet every other month, sometimes going to movies together in between. When we read The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells, we dressed as Ya-Yas, took over the last row of the theater, and finished the evening with dinner at a Cajun restaurant.

Over the years, we have read a variety of books ranging from memoirs, classics, fiction, nonfiction and a collection of short stories. We've had a few really great choices and some bombs, but through it all, we eagerly debate the next selection and look forward to our time together as social, cerebral, and celebratory of our friendship and mutual love of books.

Our last meeting takes the prize for biggest risk when we decided to try discussing a book of poems. As a genre, poetry strikes fear into the hearts of many and for that, English teachers might want to apologize. Somewhere along the line, many of us learned to dislike, avoid, or even loathe poetry. So, when the poetry suggestion was brought to our group, it took a bit of coaxing. In the end, the group agreed to give it a try and we selected Billy Collin's new book, The Trouble With Poetry.

This was a real commitment since the book is only available in hardcover,making it pretty pricey. I heard about the book on NPR, and knew the poem Collins read on the radio was the one that would hook our group. That poem was The Lanyard, I read it to the group and, bingo! " The Lanyard," is the memory of a lanyard a boy made for his mother when he was a kid at camp.

He gave it to her proudly and now, as an adult, he realizes how his precious gift pales with what she gave him so effortlessly and lovingly all his life. Collins spins this memory into a magnificent poem that tugs at the heart of all parents while bringing chuckles of recognition from the child in each of us.

Our group spent the better part of the evening sharing our favorites. We agreed, sharing meant reading it aloud first, then talking about it. We had different favorites for different reasons and exploring these reasons deepened our understanding and appreciation. It turned out to be one of the best book discussions we ever had, and I encourage all book clubs to give it a try.

The key is finding a poet who is accessible. Collins is not only accessible; his focus on the simple images of daily life reveals the secrets that hide there; the ones we miss in our busy lives. Many of the poems in this collection are about losses, some profound, some routine, some unique. But even in loss, Collins' images left us enriched for having read them. This may be the book that reacquaints you with the simple beauty of poetry.


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Submitted By: Tabitha Dial
posted on 11/10/2006 @ 2:16:08 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Awesome! Thank you for posting this. Some other poets I think any book club can enjoy are Naomi Shihab Nye, Wislawa Szymborska and Lam Thi My Da. All accomplished, living, female poets, from the Middle East, Poland and Vietnam, respectively. I am lucky to know a fellow poet who has found Nye to be truly supportive of her work. Can't say enough good things about her (my friend and Nye).
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Irma Sturgell

Centennial , CO

Irma Sturgell has posted 17 blog entries and 2 comments since joining on 4/13/2006. Irma Sturgell 's average blog rating is 5.
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