Why Poetry

April 3, 2017
This is in many ways a marvelous book. Zapruder (Sun Bear), poetry editor for the New York Times Magazine, warms to his subject—the importance of poetry and what makes it tick—as the book gets past the somewhat wordy introduction and overly autobiographical first few chapters. He shows that poetry “connects elements that one wouldn’t have expected” to surprise the reader with an awareness of associations perhaps not quite in the range of conscious thought. Poetry, unhampered by having to fulfill other functions, offers a pure interaction with language and thus the possibility of catching elusive moments of illumination. If Zapruder does not quite succeed in convincing readers that poetry differs entirely from other writing genres, his analyses of a wide range of individual poets, including Robert Hass, John Keats, Audre Lorde, W.S. Merwin, and Walt Whitman, offer insight about the use of metaphor, symbol, absence, and negative capability, and prompt conversation about his conclusions. Ending with a politically charged afterword, “Poetry and Poets in a Time of Crisis,” this passionate book, aimed at would-be poets, would work well both in a college classroom and in the hands of ordinary readers. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency.

May 15, 2017
Helping readers overcome their ambivalence about poetry.As a fine poet in his own right and editor at large at the independent poetry press Wave Books as well as the poetry page editor at the New York Times Magazine, Zapruder (English/St. Mary's Coll.; Sun Bear, 2014, etc.) is highly qualified to take on the age-old question. The author takes a personal approach, mixing memoir, analysis, and argument. As a high school senior in 1985, he dreaded the poetry unit. He picked W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" to analyze. After reading the opening lines, "something just clicked," and he understood "that there was something only poetry could do." After graduate work in Russian language and literature, Zapruder decided to pursue a degree in creative writing and never looked back. Now, he wants to share his love and knowledge of poetry. Even if readers won't feel like the "top[s] of [their] head[s] were taken off," as Emily Dickinson described it, Zapruder hopes to show how "poetry creates the poetic state of mind in a reader" through a poem's form, its leaps of association, and how it plays with the nature of language itself. He first guides readers through literal readings of three poems to demonstrate how to read a poem and dig down into its core to freely enjoy the poem for what it is. Zapruder's writing is accessible, easygoing, and welcoming, as if he's sitting right there talking us through the poems. Throughout, he uses numerous poems to clearly explain how each achieves something unique. His discussion of the enigma of line breaks is first-rate. He writes about how he fell in love with W.S. Merwin's dark and often surreal collection The Lice (1967) and how a Frank O'Hara poem, "A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island," now helps him "in this time of crisis, and beyond." To the poetry skeptics, what have you got to lose?

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Starred review from May 15, 2017

Zapruder is a poet (Come On All You Ghosts), professor (English, Saint Mary's Coll. of California), and editor (New York Times Magazine), but perhaps most importantly, he is a sensitive and perceptive reader along the lines of Hugh Kenner--a presence the literary world sorely lacks. Addressing his titular statement through a mixture of memoir and poetry analysis, Zapruder argues against the scholarly fashion of presenting poetry as something difficult and arcane. He proposes instead direct experience of the poem as the only way readers can overcome prejudices and fears induced by teachers turning poems into veiled coded messages, puzzles, or prompts for an AP exam. Anchoring his claims about poetry in the idea that a reader should be able to trust what is said on the surface of a poem, he walks us through pieces by W.S. Merwin, John Ashbery, W.H. Auden, and Emily Dickinson (among others), demonstrating time and again how reading poetry isn't about uncovering hidden meanings but slowing down long enough to appreciate what awaits on the page, echoes in our ears, and reverberates in our soul. VERDICT A great addition to every poetry collection.--Herman Sutter, St. Agnes Acad., Houston

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