Everyday Canvas

Effects of Poems

For "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" 
Prompt: “Whenever a poem enacts what it is about, it creates a way for itself to live dramatically inside the reader. It becomes an experience unto itself.”
Edward Hirsh, from the book How to Read a Poem, page 45.
Do you agree and if so, which kinds of poems leave the same or similar effect inside you?

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Enjoying poetry has to do with participating in something that mostly cannot be explained through reason and understanding alone; although, there are examples of poetry that are only meant to be understood by reason. The majority of good poems that speak to me, however, create a space for fantasy, something like a dream time, while they pull me in through their music and hidden messages.

For the same token, two different people can interpret the same poem in different ways intuitively. This means we sense and feel the poem even if our understanding of its entirety can be lacking.

Then, a poem also can have the theatrical privilege, a big idea in a single line, which may be the poet’s gift from his subconscious, like that of Shakespeare.

Thus, I like a bit of the theater in a poem, too, plus the hidden or implied universal thoughts that target the spirit of being a human. I think Poe does that well in his theatrical fashion; Pablo Neruda does that well; Rumi does that well in his story-poems; Emerson does that well; as does Elizabeth Bishop to some degree.

But I also like, simpler, shorter, concise poetry, too, like that of Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, and some WdC poets, here on the site, whose names I am keeping to myself. .

For: "Space Blog Group" 

Prompt: From lezismore-moreislez ’s "Crashing Waves " 
“The waves continue their endless cycle and crash upon the seashore.”.
Write about this in your Blog entry today and be sure to read the above item.

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“The waves continue their endless cycle and crash upon the seashore”. is a pictorial lyric as this line displays itself as a metaphor representing the cyclical nature of life. Everything works together in harmony in it, though the words are seemingly simple,they are well-chosen and well-placed in relation to one another. This is one of those perfect lines in which the places of the words shouldn’t be changed or their implied meaning could be lost.

Plus, the sound and the meanings of words set in motion the reverie, the daydreaming capacity, or a reader’s ability to see the picture the words draw in the mind’s eye. and then, feel them in the heart and the mind. In my opinion, a poem, even when understood differently by each reader, should leave something to ponder and dream about. This line, I believe, does that well.