Understanding Poetry Is More Straightforward Than You Think

Saint Mary's English Professor Matthew Zapruder, whose book Why Poetry , will be released in August, writes about the importance of demystifying and embracing poetry in the New York Times Book Review article " Understanding Poetry Is More Straightforward Than You Think ." Zapruder, who is also the former New York Time s poetry editor, discusses the problem with poetry today is that the way we have been taught about the literary art form is all wrong. In the article, which is online now and will be issued in print next week, Zapruder points to the wrong turns many young poets take in writing poems, such as confusing being deliberately obscure with creating a deeper mystery. "Good poets do not deliberately complicate something just to make it harder for a reader to understand." Read the article.