Elliott Holt reads the same poem every day for a month. She says the practice of paying attention to one thing is an antidote to endlessly scrolling the Web. Her lovely essay “My Secret Weapon Against the Attention Economy” is in The New York Times Magazine, Aug. 17, 2021.
It’s an interesting question — what the human mind does when it’s paying attention. It’s almost as if we are different personalities, different people. We’ve all seen the distracted parent, ignoring a child who wants to play or just ask a question.
We are quick to say that the distracted parent is an absent parent, but we spend much of our lives on autopilot.
Holt says the practice of rereading a single poem reminds her of the rewards of paying attention. She sees things in the poem on Tuesday that she didn’t see on Monday.
In a way, it’s a resetting of expectations. You find good things in the work of good poets because those good things are there.
You absorb the material. After a month with the same poem, you learn it by heart.
Holt’s practice is similar to those of the world’s great religions, which urge devotees to pay attention. Christian monks have prayed the Psalms for centuries. Some Hindus recite the Bhagavad Gita.
I’d choose some poet who really speaks to you. I’d choose the poems of William Stafford, Kim Stafford and Norman MacCaig over those of the Psalmist. I’ve gotten more from these poets who lived in my day than I have from King David and his co-authors.
And this practice doesn’t work with bad poems. It also doesn’t work with good poems you’re not ready to hear. As William Stafford puts it, “some things aren’t learned by manyness.”
My version of this practice involves writing a poem on an index card. I carry it around in my pocket until it wears out.
When I’m waiting in the doctor’s office or standing in line at the grocery store, the card comes out of my pocket. A really absorbing poem carries me far away, and I’m probably setting new standards for being a distracted citizen in public places.
If you have a suggestion for a good notecard poem, please let me know. I’ve included three of my favorites in the notes below.
• Elliott Holt’s essay
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/magazine/poetry-repetition.html?referringSource=articleShare
• Kim Stafford’s “Citizen of Dark Times”
https://www.thenatureofthings.blog/2019/10/poetry-sunday-citizen-of-dark-times-by.html
• William Stafford “The Little Ways that Encourage Good Fortune”
http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2006/01/51-little-ways-that-encourage-good.html
• Norman MacCaig’s “Praise of a collie”
https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2013%252F01%252F17.html
No comments:
Post a Comment