The Prestige in Poetry
by Matthew Koslowski on July 22, 2009
in Essays
Around the time I decided to launch Literature&Literacy on matthewkoslowski.com, my friend Simon Brown was promoting his blog Written Word as a venue for publishing and discussing his poems. Because of the conversations about poetry we had had when we both attended Ohio Wesleyan University–or, at least, so I like to think–he asked me to read his work.
One of his poems in particular, “Reflections” caught my attention. The imagery was stirring, the voice intriguing. But I did not understand the poem. I saw a collage of images without a narrative instead of a cohesive whole.
I discussed the parts of it that I did not understand. He explained what the narrative was supposed to be: I reread the poem and, knowing the narrative, the poem opened up and became intelligible. But the narrative he provided was not present in the poem.
I began to think of how a poem functions, how understanding and surprise are built into a poem.
