How To Approach a Poem
written by: Jim Murdoch
People expect to “get” poetry and that’s the problem.
They think the purpose of poetry is to be understood.
Oh, it’s great when that happens, don’t get me wrong,
but were you to catalogue all the many things in life
you don’t understand (do not forget about yourself)
you’ll soon realise how overrated understanding is.
Art sussed that out many moons ago. Clever old art.
It doesn’t ask to be grasped, merely appreciated.
Give it a go the next time you skim a poem.
This mindset works well with people too.
Stray dogs, bulls and horses maybe not so much.
Jim Murdoch grew up in the heart of Burns Country in Scotland. Poetry, for him, was about irrelevance—daffodils, vagabonds and babbling brooks—until one day in 1973 he read Larkin's 'Mr Bleaney' and felt as if the scales had fallen from his eyes. How could something so... so seemingly unpoetic be poetry? He aimed to find out.
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