Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Why Poetry
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
12 posts | 5 read | 18 to read
An impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for poetry's accessibility to all readers, by critically acclaimed poet Matthew ZapruderIn Why Poetry, award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder takes on what it is that poetry--and poetry alone--can do. Zapruder argues that the way we have been taught to read poetry is the very thing that prevents us from enjoying it. In lively, lilting prose, he shows us how that misunderstanding interferes with our direct experience of poetry and creates the sense of confusion or inadequacy that many of us feel when faced with it. Zapruder explores what poems are, and how we can read them, so that we can, as Whitman wrote, "possess the origin of all poems," without the aid of any teacher or expert. Most important, he asks how reading poetry can help us to lead our lives with greater meaning and purpose. Anchored in poetic analysis and steered through Zapruder's personal experience of coming to the form, Why Poetry is engaging and conversational, even as it makes a passionate argument for the necessity of poetry in an age when information is constantly being mistaken for knowledge. While he provides a simple reading method for approaching poems and illuminates concepts like associative movement, metaphor, and negative capability, Zapruder explicitly confronts the obstacles that readers face when they encounter poetry to show us that poetry can be read, and enjoyed, by anyone.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
KimHM
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image
Pickpick

If you are an aspiring poet, or a working poet, even more if you are a despairing poet, you need this book. It is bracing, surprising, necessary. I wish I‘d had it ten years ago, twenty. And if you are a reader of poetry, you, too, need this book for the very same reasons. All the 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟! #poetrymatters

15 likes3 stack adds
quote
KimHM
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

📚💚📚❤️📚💙📚💜📚💗📚🧡📚💛

#poetrymatters

quote
KimHM
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

“art exists . . . to make the stone stony” (42).

#poetrymatters and so do words

📚🧡📚💜📚💚📚💙📚❤️📚💗

quote
KimHM
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

#poetrymatters

📚💜💙📚❤️📚💚📚💗📚🧡📚💛

quote
KimHM
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

#poetrymatters

📚❤️📚💙📚💚📚💗📚💜📚🧡📚💛

review
Pam.Kokomo
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image
Pickpick

Certainly helps to make poetry more accessible. You don‘t have to understand poetry to enjoy it!

review
BucklingBookshelves
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image
Bailedbailed

I made it to page 134 (+ read the afterword) and I can‘t help but feel this book has been grossly misrepresented. Despite the jacket flap above (which totally sold me!) it comes across as very high-brow and academic to me. I have a pretty darn good vocabulary, and while I understand the words Zapruder is using, I cannot believe how many complex words he can shove into a single sentence. I‘m uninspired and this completely missed the mark for me.

blurb
Julsmarshall
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

Poetry Will Save Your Life panel at the #texasbookfestival gave me some great ideas about what poetry to read next!

vivastory Was Matthew Zapruder there? 7y
Julsmarshall @vivastory Yes, that‘s him on the right 😄 7y
vivastory I met him at a reading at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis in 2009. Really nice guy. Had a great conversation with him. 7y
50 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
Sace
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

#blameitonlitsy #bookmail

Confession - I've never been "good" at poetry. I always feel like I'm missing something. I feel guilty about this. Someone posted this book a few weeks ago and I thought this might be a good thing for me to read.

Vbrrgirl Curious to hear your thoughts. 7y
DrexEdit Same. 😳 7y
Erin7 I'm interested to hear what you think after reading. I'm part of a book club on a Goodreads that has a poetry corner as part of it. This section has several participants that feel the same as you, and we have been exploring poetry together to try and figure it out. It's been a cool experience so far and we've learned a lot together. #ATB 7y
See All 6 Comments
Sace @Vbrrgirl @DrexEdit @Erin7 I'm going to try to get to it in November sor sure. I think the #monthofmontecristo is going to keep me busy until them 😂 7y
BucklingBookshelves I bought this book for the same reason! Hope to read it soon :) 7y
Sace @Bucklingbkshelf "Hope to read it soon" = story of my life. ? 7y
100 likes5 stack adds6 comments
blurb
Graciouswarriorprincess
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

Library book haul.

britt_brooke Nice!! 7y
67 likes1 comment
blurb
GirlChandler
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

Just a teensy-weensy poetry haul from @BetterWorldBooks !!!

blurb
Robspillman
Why Poetry | Matthew Zapruder
post image

Zelda says it is big-hearted and smart. I agree.

MrBook 😻😻😻 7y
32 likes2 stack adds1 comment