/lit/ - Literature

>>21343708
せまい。ちさい。お前。
>>21343722
Start small. Take short, simple poems from great authors and chew on them. Find ones which sound good - literally sound good - to you. If they sound good to you, you're more likely to have fun as you ruminate on them. Choose ones which pique your curiosity, or provoke feeling. If you do this often enough, and just gradually branch, branch, and branch out from where you've begun, before you know it you'll have escaped the babby stage and be a neophyte. If you can enjoy your other reading hobbies and keep up with them, I'm sure you'll be able to find material within the wide poetic world which can stretch and grow you in ways you'll appreciate.

I personally began with anthologies, and zeroing in on poets I liked through Poetry Foundation, mostly. They have a free app, and if you're wanting to appreciate modern poets as well, I recommend thumbing through poetry mags at a Barnes and Nobles, or somewhere that carries them until you find one which has curation you like. Additionally, it is worth reading the US Poet Laureate's work, as their selection to the post is always multifaceted - guaranteeing that their poetry will be generally above average, sometimes excellent, will be in some way emblematic of its time or of the poet's people, and in this way you'll also gain interesting artistic talking points if you'd want them. Here in the US, we have a national PL as well as one for each state - sometimes the state level exceeds the national in a given time and place. The UK selects them for life, as I understand it, so they are typically selected with more gravity, and from what I've seen, are always strong.

With new things, time and experimentation are the answer.

I'll embarrass myself by revealing this - a story I've only told to family, but the first time I read Keats' introduction to Endymion, I was so emotionally underdeveloped I started surmising he was talking about the degradation of works of art physically over time, rather than the incredibly obvious reality he was speaking on how beautiful things which charm our souls become a part of us emotionally and stay with us throughout our lives - able to even outlive the life of the object itself. To make matters worse, I said this to a full table of my elders and professional betters, who were also poetry nuts. They were all very gracious, no one mocked or chided me, but the look in their eyes and the patient smiles which followed, told me clearly, I'd misunderstood. The point is, I moved past that stage of struggle, and, thank God, struggle with poetry of higher complexity or symbol now, and Lord-willing, will keep on growing and keep on finding new works with which to struggle forever - as I'm sure you can too, if you really wish it. Maybe this all sounded pretentious, but I just really, really like poetry and want to get as many people as possible sharing and enjoying it.