Today’s exercise is about reading and listening, rather than words on paper.
I’m so often struck by how different the experience of hearing a poem is, as opposed to just reading it silently to myself. I was thinking about this at AWP a few weeks ago, when I had the chance to hear poets who’d contributed work to The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, an anthology I co-edited with my friend Emily Pérez, share their work. These were poems I’d had a hand in selecting, poems I’d read over and over again as we assembled the anthology, as we worked through copyediting. And even those poems felt so different read aloud! (Remica Bingham-Risher read her beautiful poem, “We See ‘The Lion King’ on Broadway, I Enter the Pride,” about her blended family, with a distinct wry chuckle at the line “Years, I think, years” that anyone who’s been a stepmother or a stepdaughter will be able to share. I’d known her work was gorgeous—but I hadn’t known it would be funny!)
So, in that spirit, I thought we’d spend a bit of time today reading slowly.
today’s exercise
Find a poem you like and read it slowly several times, a couple different ways. You can try reading it aloud, listening to the poet read it, or asking someone else to read it. You might also rewrite it by hand or retype it.
You might consider sharing the poem you’ve read, too. (The poet Robin Beth Schaer (who has beautiful handwriting!) occasionally shares handwritten versions of poems she’s reading on instagram, like this Muriel Rukeyser for International Women’s Day.)
Whatever you choose, your goal is to slow down your reading and thinking and allow you to enter the poem in a different way.
A few places to look for poems:
The Rumpus is publishing a new poem every day for National Poetry Month.
The Slowdown is a poetry podcast hosted by Ada Limón.
The Academy of American Poets’ poem-a-day series includes audio.
Where else would you suggest? Feel free to suggest a beloved poem or place to discover new poems in the comments.
A note: you can write today if something comes to you as you’re listening. But you might also just read and listen and think. Reading and listening and thinking slowly is one way into writing, too.
I’d love to hear from you. You can always reply to this email, comment below, or find me on twitter (@nancy_reddy) and instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).