“Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.”
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Have you ever heard a good joke? If you've ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then you're already on the way to poetry. It's about using words in very precise ways and using gesture.
I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.
If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.
The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.