Natasha Trethewey on Poetry

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/natasha-trethewey-poetry-showed-me-that-i-wasnt-alone/2013/01/01/cc1a96da-5384-11e2-a613-ec8d394535c6_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

I found myself turning to poetry in the way so many people do — to make sense of losses...it did feel that the poem was the only place that could hold this grief...That poem showed me that I wasn’t alone in feeling that way. That’s what poetry can do for us — to remind us when we feel most alone, we are not at all.
-Natasha Trethewey

I don't know if poetry can ever completely "make sense of losses..." I don't know if anything, really, can do that - not religion nor music nor other people nor love. But I think poetry can be a refuge. And in a shining moment, it can remind us, beautifully, that we aren't alone.

To poetry. To the knowledge that "when we feel most alone, we are not at all."

Faith and Poetry (Natasha Trethewey)

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/08/154566358/natasha-trethewey-poetrys-always-a-kind-of-faith


Faith. What comes to mind - God/Buddha/Jehovah/etc. and religion? Family? Country?

Poetry. High school English class. Memorization. Shakespeare and incomprehensible words. Blah blah blah. Why should I care? Why does this matter?

I used to not like poetry. I hated analyzing it. I didn't get it. And then I don't know, I started reading it more. First, it was because I had to. Now, it's because I want to. (Funny how that can happen, isn't it?)

I love what Trethewey (new U.S. poet laureate) says about poetry.

"I think poetry's always a kind of faith. It is the kind that I have," Trethewey says. "It is what can offer solace and meaning but also ... allows me to understand these events."

If someone asked me to explain why poetry is relevant today, I think that quote is a fine answer. (Of course, not everyone finds faith in poetry. Sometimes it takes some ice cream or talking to a friend or crying it out or whatever. But I've always been able to find comfort in words.)

There is so much going on in the world today. If you skim newspaper headlines, sometimes it seems like there are only negative things: war, destruction, fires, death. Greed and corruption and people hurting other people. And yet there are still poets. Still artists and dreamers and people trying to live their lives the best way they can. 

So here's to faith, and poetry. If you think you don't like poetry, please try reading different types of poetry. I bet you'll find at least a few poems you relate to and love.