Local Student Pens "Poetry for the People"

Mrs. Bragg's 8th grade English classes had a competition--whoever wrote the best argument essay would have their essay submitted to the newspaper. Here is Olivia Dopp's. She did an excellent job arguing the importance of reading poetry still today.

Olivia Dopp's "Poetry for the People"

“I want them to waterski/ across the surface of a poem/ waving at the author’s name on the shore./ But all they want to do/ is tie the poem to a chair with rope/ and torture a confession out of it.” (Billy Collins “Introduction to poetry”). Some people feel that they really know what is embedded behind the riddles of a poem's words, while some people feel like they are worthless, complicated, and demanding, that we are only taught poetry for some odd reason that they don’t care to understand. But there is a reason to why people “torture” you with poetry: It’s because of what’s hidden deep inside a poem. Poetry is worth reading because there is more to poetry, poetry is powerful, and poems tell stories.

Poetry is worth reading because there is more to poetry. According to Billy Collins, poetry gives him pleasure and, “That pleasure is a mix of feeling, thought and language. A poem is conscious effort to create that mix of feeling, thought and language. A poem is a conscious effort to create that mix, to use language almost to fuse thought and feeling together. The perfect blend is the pleasure for me --- the marriage of thought and feeling.” (Reardon). Collins states an aspect of poetry that people may not always think about. He is saying that there is more to poetry than just words, there is feeling, thought, and language. Billy Collins wrote a poem called the “Introduction to Poetry”. “ I ask them to take a poem/ and hold it up to the light/ like a color slide/ or press an ear against its hive./ I say drop a mouse into a poem/ and watch him probe his way out,/ or walk inside the poem’s room/ and feel the walls for a light switch./ I want them to waterski/ across the surface of a poem/ waving at the author’s name on the shore./ But all they want to do/ is tie the poem to a chair with rope/ and torture a confession out of it./ They begin beating it with a hose/ to find out what it really means.” (Reardon). This poem describes how you feel when you read a poem and how you should feel, it also shows the imagery created by the poem’s words . It takes your assumptions and turns them into a new world to explore, inside a poem. It shows a pathway that you can follow to imagine something different, something that you can control and create as your own. That is what most people don’t see in words and poems, they just focus on what it really means, not what it can mean.

Poetry is worth reading because it is powerful. Collins also claims, “The other 17 percent of poetry isn’t just worth reading. I couldn’t live without it,” (Reardon). Collins states that he couldn’t “live without it,” even though this sentence isn’t literal, it still shows how powerful poetry can be. Collins believed that 83% of poetry is not worth reading but also believed 17% was so good that (as he said) he couldn’t live without it. He believed this because of how powerful poetry can be. Even know that 17% is much smaller than the other 83%, that small portion could have been smaller if it wasn’t for the power of those poems. These opinions from Collins say that, “There is another aspect to poetry [beyond searching for it’s meaning], which is simply to take in a poem just to hear a poem...”...“All you need is a pair of ears and a mind and a heart to be able to take these poems into yourself.” (Reardon). All you need to take in a poem and to actually hear one, are ears, a mind, and a heart. Poetry is powerful enough that when you actually hear the poem, think about it, take it into your heart and feel it you will be able to take it in and have a better understanding of what it might mean.

Poetry is worth reading because poems tell stories. Amal Kassir wrote a poem called, “"My Grandmother's Farm" describes a farm taken over by a violent "tyrant."” (Newsela). If Amal didn’t write this poem about her grandmother’s farm and something happened to her the knowledge of what happened would probably have been lost. By writing this poem Amal shared the story about her grandmother’s farm even though it wasn’t directly telling the story. “My grandmother knows Syria better than anyone./ It is the arthritis living in her knees./ She had a farm whose dust she knew by name./

... And the tyrant,/ The dirt is waiting for him./ Like the rest of us,/ He will learn his grave,/ Feel the weight of the entire country on his chest.” It may be confusing by there is a story hidden inside those few short lines. Mohja Kahf says that, “Poetry is a witness,” (Newsela). Poems are stories witness to events that happened, can happen, and are happening. Poetry tells stories of things that people have seen, they are witnesses to events good and bad.

In conclusion, poetry is worth reading because poetry is more than just confusing words they're powerful stories, witnesses, and worlds, they’re things you need to think about and take in not just try to understand. Most people will probably think differently one reason would be is that they seem boring and confusing. When someone says something like “now some poetry” or “let's write a poem” the majority of people will moan and groan. Everyone has their reasons why they moan and groan when poetry gets involved, but all they're doing is, “tie the poem to a chair with rope/ and torture a confession out of it./ They begin beating it with a hose/ to find out what it really means.” (Collins “Introduction to Poetry”)”.  Maybe poetry is worth a try? Maybe poetry shouldn’t be beaten with a hose to find out what it really means? Sometimes poetry can be boring and confusing but if you really feel it you can understand it. Some people hate poetry because of how difficult it can be to write, but if you understand it and feel it you could write something incredible. Poetry can be hard to write but in those few simple words is a world of possibilities. It’s a whole story a whole time a whole new place waiting in that one little poem. Poetry is worth reading because there is more to poetry than what you may think, poetry is powerful it encases you in a sea of words and literature, poems tell stories some true and some not, introducing a new world of words, ideas and events.