To Love Poetry or Not to Love Poetry

I love song lyrics. I love quotations. I am amazed by words and the meanings they’ve acquired over time. However, I do not and never have loved poetry. I try to appreciate the aesthetic and evocative qualities that poetic verses supposedly embody. Time and time again, I attempt to lose myself in a book of poetry only to find my mind wandering ahead to what’s for dinner or that next item on the ever-growing to-do list.

Naomi Shihab Nye’s “19 Varieties of Gazelle” is a collection of “poems of the Middle East,” in which Nye gives a passionate voice to the emotions she feels for her heritage. As an Arab-American living in the United States, Nye’s writing encompasses everything from daily sightings and memories to politics and people. She attempts to share life as she knows it and has experienced it through poetry.

One feature in this collection of poems that appears more than once is the use of an outside quotation before the actual poem. Along with the title, the quotation serves as an introduction to either the content or the mood of the poem. For example, before the poem, “Those Whom We Do Not Know” Nye includes a beautiful quotation by Pablo Neruda, a Chilean writer and politician that says, “To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that comes from those whom we do not know…is something still greater and more beautiful…” (55). This quotation reminds me of the kindness of strangers, good Samaritans, and the pure innocence and affection of children. It is as if this quotation was placed to draw readers in, for love is a universal emotion, recognized by everyone, regardless of age, race, or religion.

As I reflect upon reading “19 Varieties of Gazelle,” I am struggling to disentangle the confusion in my mind. Could the fact that I dislike history and consequently know nothing about the Middle East be clouding my appreciation for Naomi Shihab Nye’s poetry? Could my lack of knowledge and limited travel experience be affecting my ability like these poems? Do I just not like poetry?

The truth lies somewhere within the answers to all of these questions, but additionally, I find Nye’s collection of poems about the Middle East to be exclusive. My intellect tells me that the audience is all readers, anyone who cares enough to open the pages of the book. However, Nye’s cultural experience might best be understood by those of the same background. I simply couldn’t connect to poems about olives and figtrees, Jerusalem and the Holy Land. I found such a disconnect between what I wanted to feel and what I actually felt.

The introduction to the collection includes a bit about the tragedy that September 11^th has come to represent. Nye touches upon the meaning that poetry has within her own life and the purpose that it serves. She claims that poetry slows life to the moment, the very detail and that large disasters create chaos amidst the details. Further, she said that we need poetry “for nourishment and for noticing, for the way language and imagery reach comfortably into experience” (xvi). I love this! If only the emotion of these words translated in a universal way to the pages of poetry that follow. Perhaps I’d learn to love poetry too.