Finding Meaning, Values and Community
in Poetry

            World poetry, from ancient to modern times, is the most complete, succinct and elegant record available to us of human wisdom, experience and ethics. Reading and discussing poems can help us discover personal meaning, articulate values and make commitments, and join a community of thinkers, visionaries and witnesses across generations and cultures. This seminar or discussion group is designed for groups of 5-20 people who wish to be introduced to or expand their contact with a wide range of poetry and participate in lively, facilitated discussions of exceptional poems.

            Ezra Pound said that the great themes of literature can be listed on the back of a postage stamp. I consider them to be: Love (how life begins), Death (how life ends), and Governance (how we live together between birth and death). Within these great themes, however, there are innumerable subjects, settings and perspectives.

            I select pairs or groups of poems with common themes for reading or discussion that correspond with the expressed interests of the participants. Comparing pairs or small groups of poems that share a similar theme or motif allows the group to appreciate and evaluate the perspectives, values and styles of different poets. Articulating preferences helps participants form strong attachments to particular poems and poets and discover their own values and aesthetics.

            The discussion itself is informal in that there is no obligation to speak. One can participate by listening. As facilitator, I rarely state a preference, take a position or lecture and most of my contributions come in the form of questions. My questions are motivated by the desire to understand as completely and accurately as possible what a participant means. I often “feed back” or restate what I think I am hearing for agreement or further clarification by the participant.

            It is true that content and form are one in poetry. What was said could only have been said in that way at that time. A poem is an artifact, a made thing, not an explanation of anything. “A poem should not mean/But be.” However, for the poem to be meaningful we must be able to say or picture what the poet is seeing and describing. We must try to understand what the poet is actually saying. We must not mistake an old dog dying for a puppy being born. Therefore, I will frequently ask participants to identify the specific words, phrases or parts of the poem that are stimulating the thoughts or feelings they are expressing. Once the connection between the participant and the poem has been established and verified, once we understand what is happening in the poem, we can go on to other judgements and pleasures.

            Once the poem is meaningful to us, participants assess the poem’s value. Does it matter to us; do we really care? These are largely subjective judgements determined by the participants’ values and experiences. But this is why we read poetry–not just to exercise our powers of comprehension, but to find expression and confirmation of our values and to join a community of like-minded souls who stand together across time and tribes.