Reading a Poem: 20 Strategies

At one time or another, when face-to-face with a poem, most everyone has been perplexed. The experience of reading a poem itself is as likely to turn us off, intellectually or emotionally, as it is to move us. Unless patronized by celebrities, set to music, accompanied by visuals, or penned by our own children, poems do a terrible job of marketing themselves. But what if the fine art of reading poetry isn’t so fine after all? Here are 20 modest proposals toward rethinking the act of reading a poem. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Buy or borrow this book: Source: Collected Poems 1957-1982 (Counterpoint Press, 1985) Biography Critics and scholars have acknowledged Wendell Berry as a master of many literary genres, but whether he is writing poetry, fiction, or essays, his message is essentially the same: humans must learn to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth or perish. Continue reading this biography

Frida Kahlo - Biography - Painter Painter Frida Kahlo was a Mexican self-portrait artist who was married to Diego Rivera and is still admired as a feminist icon. Synopsis Artist Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. Considered one of Mexico's greatest artists, Frida Kahlo began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Kahlo later became politically active and married fellow communist artist Diego Rivera in 1929. Early Life Artist Frida Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. Kahlo grew up in the family’s home where she was born -- later referred as the Blue House or Casa Azul. Around the age of 6, she contracted polio, which caused her to be bedridden for nine months. Studies and Injury In 1922, Kahlo enrolled at the renowned National Preparatory School. While at school, Kahlo hung out with a group of politically and intellectually like-minded students. Tumultuous Marriage Art and Self-Portraits

Vincent van Gogh on Fear, Taking Risks, and How Making Inspired Mistakes Moves Us Forward During our recent conversation at the Boston Book Festival, the wise and wonderful Amanda Palmer spoke about the harrowing experience of watching her best friend die and reflected: “Everyone in this room is going to be gone pretty quickly — and we will have either made something or not made something. The artists that inspire me are the ones that I look at and go, ‘Oh my god — you didn’t have to go there. It would’v been safer not to — but, for whatever reason, you did.’ And every time death happens, I’m reminded that it’s stupid to be safe… Usually, whatever that is — wherever you don’t want to go, whatever that risk is, wherever the unsafe place is — that really is the gift that you have to give.” As the words poured out of Amanda’s mouth, I saw a kindred hand reach across space and time to catch them. In a particularly impassioned letter to Theo from October 2, 1884, Van Gogh writes: Ever Yours is an infinitely enlivening read in its totality.