Poetry 180

photo by Barbi Reed at NYT

Billy Collins and Michael Krasny were chatting about poetry on Krasny’s award-winning public affairs show, Forum,  during my run last week.  Krasny is the host and senior editor of the show, a professor at San Fransisco State University, the author of several books and an all around Einstein (he's definitely on my hero list).   He has been the host of Forum on KQED in San Francisco for 8 years.  His thoughtful interviews have not only kept me company during many lonely miles of training but also provided an education on every topic under the sun.    Billy Collins was the US Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003 and, if it is not an oxymoron to say so, a popular American poet.  Collins created a little stir in the literary world when he said, "I found that 83% of American poetry isn't worth reading. That's my figure. The other 17% is hard to live without."  Although I appreciate poetry as much as the next English major/elementary teacher, the genre can be baffling, confusing and, sometimes, downright unpleasant.  Collins thinks that pretentious poets are to blame.  

During his tenure as poet laureate, Collins worked with the Library of Congress to create Poetry 180, a poem a day for American high school students (and their teachers!). His goal was to make well-written, contemporary poetry a part of student’s daily lives  in order to convince students “that poetry can be an understandable, painless and even eye-opening part of their everyday experience.”  Collins selected the poems from the 17% of work that he deemed worth reading.  He is certainly a worthy judge.  At the age of 70, Collins has sold over a million copies of his 9 books, teaches at Lehman College in NYC and travels around the country speaking with students and teachers about poetry.

So why should readers bother with poetry?  What does it do for us that a novel or memoir can’t?  Collins believes “that poems can inspire and make us think about what it means to be a member of the human race. By just spending a few minutes reading a poem each day, new worlds can be revealed.”

I teach a unit on poetry each year in my classroom and by far the greatest challenge is finding poems that appeal to my suspicious  10 year old students.  They have already learned to distrust poetry thanks to torturous lessons from well meaning teachers.  I have learned to start with Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstien to prove that poetry can be irreverent, funny, gross, creepy and silly.  When I gain their trust I can slide in Mary Ann Hoberman and Jane Yolen.  My goal is to break down their poetry prejudices and open their minds, just a crack, to let some poetry shine in.  

Billy Collins reveals the truth about poems, they are not all ‘good’ and they appeal to different people for different reasons (different strokes for different folks).  We accepts these realities in restaurants, clothing stores and music, why not in our poetry?  Poetry is not something you like or don’t like, that’s like saying you don’t like food after eating cold beet soup, it is not just one thing.  Readers must search for the poems that speak to them, the ones that make them laugh or cry or hope or just want to read more.  Collins has sifted through the sludge and provided us with 180 nuggets to get started.

p.s. it’s easy to subscribe to Poetry 180 and have the daily gift of poetry waiting in your inbox each day.