poetry

Yesterday I had the rare occasion to walk into a Barnes and Noble. The closest one is about an hour and a half away. I keep stumbling across the excellent poems of Brian Doyle in publications that I admire (such as this poem "The Crash," published in The Sun Magazine), and I wanted to purchase a book of his. Turns out I'll have to do it online. I know that poetry isn't a popular read, but it made my heart sad to see that this particular store had only one single half bookshelf of poetry. Perhaps five shelves in all. The top was taken up by anthologies, a number of which promised to teach the reader how to read a poem. Bending down, I noticed the books that were placed with the cover showing in order to attract our attention: The Odessey, The Illiad, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Beowulf. Great epics (and ones likely to be required for school), but really? Come on!

On an up-note, I heard on NPR that a modern poetry course offered through Coursera has 30,000 students, including our Senate Majority Whip. Best not to despair yet...