Reading versus Writing Poetry

"If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?"

-Emily Dickinson 

In researching and writing on the work of Emily Dickinson, I became immersed in her life in a way I never thought I would. Where I expected to find a raving madwoman, scribbling away on scraps of paper and stashing them in holes in the wall like a mouse scurrying across the kitchen floor, I instead found a woman who simply did what she wished. I found someone generally uninterested in participating in a society she had a distaste for and so wrote not for everyone else, but for her.

I'm not much of a poet. I'm not formally trained, I could read an iamb as a trochee and vice versa depending on what day of the week it is, and god forbid you ask me to explain to you what the Hell John Donne was talking about. But in reading Dickinson and peeking into what she saw so special about poetry, I found myself having an easier time composing my own. If Emily Dickinson can become a famous poet for writing what she liked, forget what poetic convention said, then I could write my own because at the end of the day, poetry is supposed to make you feel something.

Rhyme scheme, meter, structure, those are all fine. But at the end of the day you could write the most formally impressive poem that is simply capital b BORING. Poetry should be brimming with emotion, should make you feel as if "the top of [your] head were taken off," as it were. In writing about poetry, I found myself drawn to finding the author within her words. What life experiences informed a particular artistic choice? Why capitalize a particular noun? Why did that matter? Dickinson's poems became a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow. Where? I couldn't be sure, but definitely somewhere I could find understanding. So when I sat down to compose on my own, I found myself thinking back to dear old Emily. How could I inject myself into my poems? How can create something that was raw, flaming, and undeniably me? What devices would I employ and which would I throw out the window for sake of feel? By studying one of the greats, I found myself making more informed choices, more truly artistic choices, and fewer accidental ones. I was walking in a direction instead of stumbling in the dark.

It's no secret that reading in a genre you are attempting to write in improves your writing. The opposite is also true. But experiencing it first hand is different. I found myself becoming a better poet because I had absorbed some of the technique and mindset of some of the greatest. I had exemplary models to pull from. In this way, I think it's incredibly important to ensure that students are well read in the fields they are attempting to write in.