How to read poetry

an unhelpful musing and loose resolution

A few weeks ago, I published a list of every book I read in 2024. If you look closely at that list, you’ll notice only two of those books are collections of poetry. To be clear, I read many poems by many poets in 2024. But here’s a little secret…

The majority of poetry books I read, I don’t finish. Not cover to cover at least. Not page after page in one sitting. I snack. I peruse. Some poems get read dozens of times; some only once, with little attention and much hurry. Some collections I read like a trailmix from which I pick out all the M&Ms. Are there better ways to read poems? Most likely. But this is my current status/methodology.