Falling In love with Poetry, by YWA teacher Kim Deskin

“it was then that I learned the importance of intonation, expression, and feeling in poetry. By that time, I knew I was going to be a teacher (and maybe—but maybe not—a famous Broadway actress), and I vowed that I would help my students understand and appreciate poetry.”

— Kim Deskin

I’d like to say that I fell in love with poetry as a child, when my mother would read to me. I remember, more, the images in the book she shared. Specifically, images of the children swinging--carefree and joyfully--with Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Swing.”

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it’s the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do.

Alas, I was a sleepy child and the rhymes and rhythms were soothing, I usually fell asleep before Mama got through more than a few verses. So I can’t say I fell in love then.

Elementary school, of course, brought the amusement of Dr. Seuss and his predictable rhymes and exciting stories.

On the faraway island of Sala-ma-sond,

Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond.

A nice little pond. It was clean. It was neat.

The water was warm. There was plenty to eat.

Always fun, fantastical, and easy to memorize. While I enjoyed impressing audiences with my recitation, I still don’t think it was “love.”

In junior high, I remember learning about Emily Dickinson. I still call her my first favorite poet. Becoming dramatic myself, I was drawn to her character, her white dresses, her defined existence outside of “real life.”

A Bird, came down the Walk -

He did not know I saw -

He bit an Angle Worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw...

I read all I could about her, but I don’t remember much. Must not have been true love.

In high school, I got Whitman, Plath, Byron, and Shakespeare. I even experimented with writing poems myself (remember: me--dramatic). But, “love,” not quite; still more of a display.

College. One college professor got me hooked. I finally had someone read poetry to me in a way that I could understand it. e e cummings:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

Okay, I admit. I realized early in the course that I didn’t actually have to do the assigned reading before class, because I couldn’t understand it alone. But, as soon as the professor read, every word made sense. I fell in love--with the words. With poetry.

More importantly, it was then that I learned the importance of intonation, expression, and feeling in poetry. By that time, I knew I was going to be a teacher (and maybe--but maybe not--a famous Broadway actress), and I vowed that I would help my students understand and appreciate poetry.

Read it. Read it again. Find the meaning. Find the emotion. Then, share it. Poetry is beauty. Poetry is life. Poetry is love.