This morning I was talking with some people (a fiction writer, techie, and retired elementary teacher) at a local dog park. The topic of reading books came up, I think when someone passed by and mentioned reading a book. We commented how great it was that there are still people reading. At that point, I mentioned OpenCulture.com and a page that list Patti Smith’s favorite books. I wasn’t sure if they knew who Patti Smith is, so I said that she was the grandmother of punk rock, but started out as a poet. The moment I mentioned “poet” everyone groaned and ranted about how awful poetry was.
The shock of the other always leaves me speechless and dumbfounded. And, it’s an epistemological shock, too. I’m left trying to figure out what just happened. In this case, I was left pondering how people come to hate poetry. And, the only thing I can come up with is lack of exposure to poetry that was more relevant to them and to never writing poetry as a way to explore experiences, emotions, textures, etc. They were taught about poetry as something external and disconnected to their own experiences.
So, we end up with people who are missing entire worlds — real and imagined — that could expand their horizons and provide ways of understanding ourselves, others, and our worlds. I’m sure they’ve never read or listened to Patti Smith, John Giorno, Gregory Corso, Ann Waldman, and Diane DiPrima. Listening to these poets may change you life, but at the very least affect you. If you listen to John Giorno’s “Suicide Sutra” (not embedded here) and are not left feeling raw afterwards, that would be odd indeed.
Patti Smith reading poetry in 1975.
John Giorno reading “Thanx for Nothing”