I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
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In school, emphasis is placed on a poem's literary techniques: "Find three examples of alliteration"; "What is your favorite image in the poem?"; "Find a simile and a metaphor in the poem"; we've all been forced to do these meaningless tasks, and these "activities" murder poetry for many students.
Collins suggests an alternative approach, one based more on enjoyment and feeling, not rigorous examination. This is how we want to read poems in this club. We will see poems as small miracles, not as a scientfic subject to be microscopically examined.
Feel free to respond to this poem as comments or to put up a new poem as a separate post.
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