"-You think about a poem too much.
Like Spanish moss,
it starts killing the tree!"
Brenda Hillman's first stanza from the poem "Visiting Creature" (above) reminds me of one of the most important things to remember when reading a poem. Don't over-think it. Don't give yourself a hernia. I must admit, with some embarrassment, that I don't really understand half of what Hillman writes about in her poems from the books Bright Existence and Death Tractates (which includes the above-mentioned poem). These books are ambitious works that ask big questions and ponder gnostic ideas. And grief, a whole lot of grief, especially in Death Tractates, which is about the death of Hillman's good friend. Yet, I'm never frustrated, never confused. Instead, I'm left with a sense of mystery and wonder, of sadness and grief. A great poem leaves you with emotion. If you're scratching your head, it may have missed its mark. But if it makes you think, makes you adapt it to your own life and understanding, makes you look at it from your perspective, well, it's done its job. I find it interesting that Hillman mentions this in her own work. I wonder if she had received criticisms about her work being inaccessible, and I laugh, knowing that we've all faced this obstacle. Sometimes people try too hard to understand where we're coming from, instead of listening and absorbing whatever we throw their way. So next time you screw up your face with wonder at some strange poem, relax. Give that poem a chance to grow into you.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1442
Like Spanish moss,
it starts killing the tree!"
Brenda Hillman's first stanza from the poem "Visiting Creature" (above) reminds me of one of the most important things to remember when reading a poem. Don't over-think it. Don't give yourself a hernia. I must admit, with some embarrassment, that I don't really understand half of what Hillman writes about in her poems from the books Bright Existence and Death Tractates (which includes the above-mentioned poem). These books are ambitious works that ask big questions and ponder gnostic ideas. And grief, a whole lot of grief, especially in Death Tractates, which is about the death of Hillman's good friend. Yet, I'm never frustrated, never confused. Instead, I'm left with a sense of mystery and wonder, of sadness and grief. A great poem leaves you with emotion. If you're scratching your head, it may have missed its mark. But if it makes you think, makes you adapt it to your own life and understanding, makes you look at it from your perspective, well, it's done its job. I find it interesting that Hillman mentions this in her own work. I wonder if she had received criticisms about her work being inaccessible, and I laugh, knowing that we've all faced this obstacle. Sometimes people try too hard to understand where we're coming from, instead of listening and absorbing whatever we throw their way. So next time you screw up your face with wonder at some strange poem, relax. Give that poem a chance to grow into you.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1442
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