I have begun reading poetry as part of a reading list I put together to read the great works of the past. Poetry, while being one of the main categories, has been neglected in my reading schedule for most of my life.
So far Coleridge has hit my docket and now, Williams. I talked about Coleridge in a prior post. I enjoyed his work, it inspired me to think differently about the way I observe the world around me. It was a useful and inspiring reading experience.
I had no idea what to expect from Williams. While I thought I would receive a new way of looking at the world, which I did, I was surprised to find that writing what my response to Williams.
His free verse seemed to fit inside my mind in a way reminiscent of my own patterns of thought. He observed an event or a picture or a person and he would create a poem around his experience with the moment. Sometimes eclectic, sometimes unexpectedly random and scattered, sometimes prescient of feelings and thoughts incongruent with the mentioned event.
Because it is free verse, there is plenty of white space at the margins and I found myself trying at my own poems on the pages I was reading. I don’t attribute any greatness to them but I am happy to have been stirred to create alongside a creator. I read his thoughts put to verse and danced my own alongside his.
Grab a book of poetry and see what is stirred in you.