I've decided on a new reading strategy: for every living poet I read, I will read at least one dead poet. By keeping my poetry reading more or less half-dead, I will ensure my own poetry writing is ALIVE. Methinks.
Any unusual reading strategies that have served you well?
4 comments:
Not yet, but yours is formula uno...
not very unusual, but . . .
i read as much new poetry by as many writers that are new to me as possible, often via literary magazines. but when i start to despair or feel lost in a new volume, i set it aside and return to an old, familiar voice to keep the faith.
Since I have no literary background, except for the electives I took in college and university which invariably were always courses in one genre of literature or another, I'm trying to read most of the work by all the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning poets. I figure it's as good a place to start as any. But I do read extensively from e-zines & print poetry publications. I'm not sure it's a good strategy but it seems to be working for me. I realize, however, that I must spend more time with the classics. I'm working on it...
Yep, it's the old, unfamiliar voices I'm interested in too...and there are plenty of those. Despite my U of T Honours BA in English Lit, la di da di da.
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