Last month’s guest writer, Julia Tilley, marvelously explained why she writes poetry and she speaks for many of us. Although I spend a great deal of my free time writing poetry, I’d like to explain why I read poetry. Almost no day passes without my reading several poems. Yes, I am the stereotypical English major, and being the editor and publisher of Iris G. Press which publishes poetry books in addition to the poetry journal Fledgling Rag, I am frequently offered poems to review and comment on. However, even if I had ended my education after 12 years at a typical public high school in Central Pennsylvania and put food on my family’s table by working with chocolate in one of Hershey’s factories, I would still read poetry every day. I love what it does.
What it does is to make me think, laugh, cry, become angry, or feel joy. Poetry can also set a mood. Like most of us, I have the need to get away from my daily grind, and I read poetry in order to do just that. Good poets can create an atmosphere and a private world with their words. There are three poets whom I am currently reading who are excellent at producing this kind of atmosphere.
Sonata for Rain and Basso InContinuo
View from broken window panes
through shades drawn long ago:
sheet covered shapes and dust —
the tone arm still suspended.In a corner, the cracked cello loses its timbre.
Squirrels scatter through splintered wood.
Branches, abandoned by leaves, fall from the sky.
No birds to sing the morning.There is no one here,
just the sound of stillness
bouncing off the clouds,
wanting to force out the thunder.
- Rebecca Gonzalez
In this poem, from the highly regarded York County poet’s newly-released book, Sonata for Rain, a moment is frozen. From the very first line, a mood is captured, not through specific physical descriptions but through the use of glancing references to the senses. Sight is used first to set the stage, but we quickly become aware that this moment is dominated by sound, or rather lack of sound. She moves us from the visual of broken windowpanes and a cracked cello in the corner to the contemplation of its lost timbre. However, in this work, it is the absence of sound, (”No birds to sing the morning” and “just the sound of stillness/bouncing off the clouds”) which is most predominant. We are left with a sense of melancholy, silence, and loss without using those specific words. A lesser poet would show us the loss or would use the word melancholy, but a greater poet sets the tone and lets us experience it. This is the craft of a poet.
I want to feel you closer than breath
whispering across fine hairs
a wave of warmth unevidenced
by any entered boundary
slipping through like light,
moving in the direction of my heart.
- Deanna Nikaido
In this poem, Ms. Nikaido doesn’t take us to a specific, physical place but creates a mood, one of love. Many poems of affection provide details of the object of that affection. The face of the loved one or the smile of a child may provide the focus for a verse. However, this poem withholds details in favor of painting a delicate, impressionistic picture of a tender moment of reverie. Again it is the senses, the sense of touch (“I want to feel you closer than breath/whispering across fine hairs”) and sight (“slipping like light/moving in the direction of my heart”) that paint the scene. This poem perfectly describes the moment of reflection when we know we have connected with another soul.
Interlude
she counts what cannot be measured:
the years since a gentle touch
or notes of a lamentthe raindrops compose
against the paneoutside her window the world swirls
with the exquisite passion of possibility
barely audible at the frequency of fearand regret
deaf to the tympani of heart and hope
she presses her lips against
the cool clear glass and pausesas she waits for the world to kiss her back
- Marissa Allen
The title of Ms. Allen’s poem sends the signal the poem is about a reflective moment and much like Ms. Gonzalez’s poem above, about melancholy. Here, too, she uses the senses, predominately those of sound (“notes of a lament,”) and touch (“she presses her lips against/the cool clear glass and pauses/as she waits for the world to kiss her back”) to create the atmosphere. There is no clear, narrative description of the moment. However, after reading it, we are filled with the sense of isolation and again, loss.
The best poets among us use their craft to set a mood. In the same way that a film director is concerned about lighting and sound, poets create atmosphere by using the senses as their creative instruments, particularly sound, touch, and sight. All three poets, Rebecca Gonzalez, Deanna Nikaido, and Marissa Allen set the scene, create a mood, and illuminate the moment as well as any Broadway director. They are not heavy-handed and obvious in their approaches. They compose their scenes, get out of the way, and allow us to inhabit the experience.
This is what poetry does.