Not Your Grandmother's Poetry

"Poetry will have a hard time playing a vital role in our culture if it is confined to leather-bound books on the library shelf." --Billy Collins

We must take time for it often, as we do for food. Gathering and reading poetry from your own bookshelf is like serving at your table a steaming pie rushed home from an uptown bakery. Making your own pie from scratch is even more rewarding.* This week a talented emerging poet shared with me some delightful wordplay on paper. She told the story of how, in writing, she had reached for inspiration at hand. Her cupboards were almost bare. All she could find was a book or two of children's poetry and volumes of flowery rhyme from another era. In our busy lives, we are not passing around enough poetry. Next time I'll have her knock at my door, as if to borrow a cup of sugar.

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Many folks think that poetry should rhyme and be about flowers or heartbeats. Poets are working to change that image. Here are some images that will blast that out of your head...

Try Katie Makkai or Anis Mojgani.