I Don’t Understand Poetry

So, I’m taking a creative writing class focusing on poetry this semester, and I have to admit, I have no ability whatsoever to understand poetry. 

Now, don’t get me wrong: I know and appreciate a good poem when I see one. What I don’t understand is why good poems are good. I just don’t get it. For some poems, of course, it’s obvious. Exquisite and specific word choice, vivid imagery, thought provoking ideas. But what makes “Nothing in That Drawer”, by Ron Padgett—a poem that simply lists its own title fourteen times—a good poem? Why can a poem be a single word or an entire book? Why does free verse work at all in poems? None of it makes sense to me.

Sometimes it makes me uncomfortable, that lack of understanding. I’ll take in a poem and really enjoy it, not knowing why I do or why what I’m reading even fits in the genre, and it makes me uneasy. I’m sure some of that will change as I read more poems, but I also think it’s okay for things I like to not make sense.

Human interest is often something that just can’t be explained. Why do I enjoy one hobby while you prefer another? Why can I like a “worse” movie more than a “better” one? How can I explain my fashion sense or the subject I study or those little topics that captivate me?

I can’t, and that’s okay.

We live in a world that is constantly telling us how to live our lives—how to write our own poems, so to speak. We get told what to say and what not to say, what to wear and—more often—what not to wear, how to vote and not vote, who to love and not love, what to believe and not believe. This is sometimes useful advice with positive intent, sure—similar to the advice to use specific wording when writing poetry. But then again, the only person who knows best which word fits perfectly in a poem is its author.

It may be a little uncomfortable to go against what your world has told you, especially at first. We don’t always understand right away why something is best for us, though we usually do in time. Sometimes you don’t know why a poem is good, merely that it is.

I don’t mean to say that we should always rebel against what we are told—I myself am a chronic rule follower. The people in our lives usually have our best interests at heart, and tell us what we should do because they think it will make our lives better. But at the same time as you acknowledge that, also remember that every good poem is good for a different reason, and so are we.