I want to try something a little different (for me, anyway; and, hopefully, for you too).  It may turn out to be too much like watching sausage get made, and if that is the case, I will abandon the idea, but first let me tell you what prompted it.  During the last few months, I have met people who asked me good questions about writing poetry.  When I get into such conversations, often, I  steer the conversation to the subject of reading poetry.  I’m not much into deconstruction, and certainly not as far as my own work is concerned.  I like talking to other writers and poets about their respective processes, but I don’t know what that sounds like to non-writers.  There is difference and there is sameness in what writers do.  What about readers?  And what about the readers or would-be readers of poetry? I a gree with Kathryn Byer, North Carolina’s Poet Laureate, who said in the interview I conducted of her in the Winter 2006/2007 issue of Main Street Rag,  that if poetry is taught as if it is a problem to be solved, that way of coming to a poem stays with students, and that isn’t a good thing.  I wish everyone could approach reading a poem as if that poem were simply a story to be told, a secret to be whispered, a lover to be held or one which is willing to  hold the reader.  Or, maybe it’s a lit fuse – it could be, you know. Continue reading “Work in Progress: An Experiment” →