Parisian Phoenix Publishing

Thank you to everyone who attended Poet Palooza 3 at downtown Easton’s Book & Puppet Company with representatives from other local presses and publications, including Darrell Parry of Stick Figure Poetry. The evening featured 16 local poets and a mini-workshop, and the bookstore itself has a money museum and art gallery.

So here’s another reflection, applicable to readers and writers. When you read or hear a poem, your experience and your reaction changes the poem. So don’t worry about interpretation or what it’s supposed to mean. Enjoy it for your interaction with it, find your favorite bits and ponder what it makes you feel.

As writers, we all benefit from poetry. We should all write poetry, even if we struggle with it. Poetry starts with the same impetus an essay or a fiction story does. It just lingers more on structure and word choice than the average prose piece.

A great poem finds the sharpest images and the strongest words and builds them succinctly into a tight nugget of expression. A poem exudes its theme, whereas prose can meander and lose its way. Poetry, when you engage it, forces you to grow.