Megan Falley - How Poetry Can Change Your Heart

Text copyright 2019 by Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gibson, Andrea (Poet), author. | Falley, Megan, author.
Title: How poetry can change your heart / by Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley.
Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018026122 | ISBN 9781452171807 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Poetry-- Appreciation. | Poetry-- Influence.
Classification: LCC PN1064 .G46 2019 | DDC 808.1-- dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018026122

ISBN: 978-1-4521-7180-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7740-3 (epub, mobi)

Design by Vanessa Dina

Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com

POETRY TRANSFORMS

Maybe the poetry you were assigned in school twisted your face into a knot of confusion. Maybe it was the literary equivalent of warm milk, lulling you to sleep. Maybe it roused your every goose bump, but then you graduated to a world that built a cubicle around your wonder, and someone replaced the poetry in your hand with a textbook on business marketing. Maybe you are longing for more beauty in your life and envision poetry as the splash of aquamarine on an otherwise beige canvas. Maybe you are already in love with poetry and want to deepen your relationship through this book.

Whatever brought you to these pages, welcome. Welcome to the ever-adventurous journey of witnessing your own life by witnessing anothers. Welcome to expanding your peripheral vision to the width of the Pacific by entering this world through someone elses perspective. Welcome to blush and rage and melt and bliss. Welcome to a world where there are as many languages as there are people and it turns out there is a poet out there who is fluent in you.

Poetry makes the universe reachable by telling a story. We can travel continents in a single stanza. Feel lifetimes in a lone page. Poetry is the passport that proves we are, all of us, citizens of the world, and through poetry we can even heal that world.

Whoever first said that poetry is dead failed to provide the autopsy. If poetry is dead, what a rowdy and glorious ghost. Poetry haunts. Poetry permeates the walls we put up. Poetry startles us awake and into our own aliveness. Poetry rustles the hairs on the backs of our necks and chases us into more compassionate rooms. Though it is difficult to change a stubborn mind, poetry can change our hearts in an instant.

Its probable that there are more poets on Earth today than at any other time in history. After all, there are more humans than ever, and the rising popularity of spoken word has brought more attention to the art. The likelihood that someone out there is writing the poems that you need to hear increases by the day. Poetry is alive and running through the streets, calling your name. Whoever you are. No matter what they told you. Despite anything that has ever suggested otherwise. Poetry is for you.

poetry (noun): writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm

MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM /DICTIONARY

Now that weve gotten the dictionarys definition of poetry out of the way, lets get a little bit more honest. We might venture to say that poetry has closer to seven billion definitions, as it means something a little different to every person on the planet. A romantic might say that it is the pen-and-paper version of roses and chocolate. A skeptic might argue its whatever is inside a very disposable greeting card. A high school student might believe poetry is Shakespeare, and never learn anything more. A literary academic might define it as saying as much as you can in as few words as possible. But a person whose heart has been changed by poetry will tell you poetry is the key that unlocks a door you never knew was shut.

Below are some definitions of poetry from a smattering of people:

Word music

LINDA TEDESCO, 49, LEGO BRICK ARTIST

What happens when you give your heart a pen.

HILLARY BROWNE, 38, DOG ENTHUSIAST

Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toenails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.

DYLAN THOMAS (19141953), WELSH POET

To understand the universe, I turn to science, but to understand my place in it, I turn to poetry.

KARINA FOSTER-MIDDLETON, 22, ASTRONOMY STUDENT

The poet thinks in big ways. The people think in tiny ways.

JUDE, 7

There have been some rumors about poetry flying around, and its time to set the record straight.

Myth #1: Poetry has to rhyme.

Myth #2: Poetry has to be about love.

Myth #3: Or flowers. Or wintry landscapes.

Myth #4: Poetry is polite and proper.

Myth #5: It is difficult to understand.

Myth #6: Poetry can only be found in books.

Myth #7: All poets are white men from the 1800s or before.

Myth #8: Its a dead art form.

Myth #9: Poetry is not for you.

they never ever wrote down. If you still believe poetry is not for you, it is merely because you have not found the poet out there who is for you. But you will.

Poetry is for everybody. It is not an exclusive club for people who wear berets and are very good at snapping. If school taught you that poetry was not for you, school did you wrong! School gets an F. Poetry can be funny. It can be political. It can be erotic and full of curse words. Poetry can be a love letter to pudding. Poetry can be about any topic, in any form, written by anyone. (Spoiler alert for later chapters: Even you!)

. William Carlos Williams, This is Just to Say

. John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

. Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress

. William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow

. Mike McGee, Puddin (An Ode)

. Sharon Olds, Ode to the Tampon

. Phil Kaye, The Geico Gecko

. Omar Holmon, Jesus Christ Super Toaster

Science suggests that a series of predetermined and increasingly vulnerable questions asked between strangers can lead to love. What if you could ask yourself some questions about your connection with poetry and fall in love with the art form? Here is a list of questions to help you get introspective about the state of your current relationship to poems and to see if you can envision a future together (Is it complicated? Are you married? Separated? Just talking? Ready to commit to a thirty-year mortgage?). Read each question, pause, and take the time to answer it honestly and thoughtfully. (This is great to do with a friend or group as well. Try it out!)

1. What were you raised to appreciate?
2. In what ways, if any, was poetry valued in the house where you grew up?