If you read poetry books, do you have a preference for how you read them?

[TowerStork]

When you get a poetry book how do you go about reading it? I hope that doesn't sound like a silly question because I'm completely serious. Do you read it all in order, focus on the poems you already know and like, or flick through the book stopping at whatever poem takes your fancy?

I've acquired a lot of poetry books but for each one I only know a handful of the poems. Going in order can seem like a chore but I'm propably missing out.

No poetry book readers?

What sort of poetry book? If it's an anthology I skip about randomly, sometimes just opening and seeing what I'm at, sometimes going to a poet I know I like. If it's a work by a single author I read in order.

I have a large poetry book collection - nothing archaic - I've been interested in reading and writing it for years. I probably have several hundred paper books and maybe a 1000 as ebooks which is important for me because I often search for keywords to find poems - usually I'm looking for something seasonal to read. With paper books, I have a fair number of collections (Bloodaxe are a favourite publisher) - some by multiple authors, many by single authors. The way I read varies a little bit, I often start reading a new book from the first poem but then start to look at the poem titles to see what grabs my attention - this is usually the way I read books that I've had for ages - I look for titles - usually because I have a bee in my bonnet about something - the seasons, birds, trains, trees, school, it's an endless list of random things. With books in ePub and PDF format (I keep them on an iPad) I do bookmark poems I think I'll want to come back to.

Poetry is not cool, I don't know anyone that's remotely interested in it. There is so much great contemporary poetry around these days.

Start from the beginning and then flick through, I suppose. I usually find myself stuck on one poem and then unable to move on until I've processed it.

I've read from start to finish and jumped about. Depends on the book. I like poetry and should really read more. I love things like the old poetry on the underground, Brian Bilston on instagram, the faber & faber poetry diary or poetry in newspapers where poems insert themselves into the everyday.

Slowly and carefully. I read poetry books like I (used to) listen to CDs when I was a teen. I mean I go through slowly, picking out the ones I love and then read them over and over again.

Actually, I read some prose writers more like poets. So, for example, when I read Dickens or George Eliot or Jane Austen or Thomas Hardy, I'm caught up in the plot and the characters. But when I read P. G. Wodehouse, Anthony Burgess, or Virginia Woolf, I savour the language and pretty much ignore the plot.

Thanks for your responses. Interesting to see the different approaches.

@Merrow I'm thinking of books by a single poet rather than anthologies.

I usually zone in on the poems I already know or flick through the book for titles that catch my fancy.

I have tried reading in order but it wasn't very satisfying and felt like a chore. Perhaps I didn't give each poem enough time. I'll try your approach @SusiePevensie and won't move on until I'm happy that I understand it (unless I hate it of course)

I'll check out the he Faber & Faber poetry diary @JaninaDuszejko you might like the Poetry Unbound podcast by On Being.

I like to discover new poets but I go back to old favourite..I find a few lines in a poem that stay with me. I like Brian Patton and Dylan Thomas. Sometimes when someone tries too hard to impress me the words, ‘ I know the seasons. of things that come and go ‘ make me feel grounded.
you won’t always remember the words verbatim but sometimes it strikes cord with you.

As I am completely uneducated poetry is a great comfort.

It depends if the poetry is a long narrative one or a verse cycle (in which case I would read it like a novel) or a collection (in which case I would start at the beginning or might skip around).

@JaninaDuszejko- I need to read more too & now want a poetry diary. I loved poetry on the Underground when I was younger (it makes me think instantly of Roman Wall Blues which I spotted as a teenager).

@larkstar- verse novels like The Final Year are really popular in Children’s Lit at the moment.

@Benvenuto I've no idea why you'd suggest anything like Matt Goodfellow's work for me - but I downloaded the (for once) generous kindle sample and it's very energetic but readable. I only like down to earth poetry written by observant, reflective adults for reflective adults - so long as it's readable and understandable as a minimum. There is a gold mine of great children's literature - old and new - I've read a lot - when my grandchildren are a little older I'm sure I'll be reading them some great things but I have previously found some children's literature to be the wrong side of didactic and mawkish - in a word - infantilised - right now - I'm a lot nearer the other end of the spectrum - not Bukowski as an everyday read (who was the archetypal Bad fellow!) - I sometimes say I dip into poetry because I'm too lazy to read a whole book (pragmatically that contains a grain of truth - let's face it - it is easier) but that's not actually true - sometimes I think reading, as much as it is said how essential it is for every writer (and I agree with this), it is a bit of a displacement activity from doing your own work - the dilemmas - I should read for its own sake, I should write for its own sake, I should read in order to write but am I reading in order NOT to write? - it's like losing yourself in a hall of mirrors!

Probably the only one of the 3 poetry books I'm reading (worth mentioning) and going to read it all - is Maeve O'Sullivan's Elsewhere - 2017 - 99p from a used book shop - it's about travelling (globally) - with sections - East - West - Home - and she includes many haiku, haibun, senryu and a variety of other structured forms as well as short sections of prose - this is right up my street as around 2013 I took to writing haikus whenever I've been away travelling - these days in a campervan - with my dog - who is very patient but otherwise... not much help.

@larkstarthat was a comment not a recommendation (but I’m glad that you enjoyed it). You said that “poetry wasn’t cool” - yet it is for 10 and 11 year olds as The Final Year has been very popular and other verse novels are being published.

I like what I have read of Matt Goodfellow but it is interesting that verse is becoming popular again at the same time as graphic novels are also becoming very popular for children. I hope it’s due to enjoyment of poetry, but given the concern re children’s reading it could because - as you said - it’s easier than a novel.