What’s A Poem For?

There’s no right answer—that is, any one of a hundred answers can be right. But I like what poet Sebastian Matthews said in an interview for Spartanburg Magazine. Unfortunately, the interview is no longer available online, but here’s Matthews’ answer to the double-barreled question, What must a poem do? How does it work on the reader?

It must have sufficient energy to allow the reader to move through it; ample music and imagery to get him to return to the page and read it aloud; and enough wisdom or insight to make her ponder it as she heads back out into the day. I want him to be ensnared by the poem so that he can't help but bring it with him to the next thing. Ideally, she would end up at a party of like-minded souls and read the poem to her friends, who will read poems to her in return. Or he'll post it on his blog, or type it out in an e-mail to a friend, or send it by post as a card or a letter. Or write out a few lines in her notebook, or use a line in a painting or a collage. Maybe he'll write a poem as a reply, which as Geoff Dyer once said, is the real critical response: a lineage of readers and writers communicating through this dialogue. 

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Eavesdropping

A snatch of conversation … a message scrawled on a rest room wall … found words can be good poem starters. Examples:

• Reclaim yourself.
• The world is so broken, so broken.
• Sometimes the best husband is an ex-husband.
• I used to know where wild strawberries grow.
• Art won’t hurt you.
• Life is a war against chaos.ove to see them.

Overhearing stuff like this is why it’s good to keep a little notebook handy.—S.Z.,