My relationship with poetry is odd. As a music lover and off-key vocalist who loves the reverb of a tile shower, I belt out stanzas with the punch intended to a fleeting audience of water droplets. As a reader, though, it’s 98% prose and perhaps 2% picture books. My sole attempt to read poetry dates back over four decades, when I was asked by a much-adored English teacher to pinch hit in a forensics competition; he was down a poetry reader and without a full team the true talents who depended on this last competition of the year faced disqualification. I did what any senioritis-suffering, take one for the English team student would – I read a collection of Yes lyrics to a somewhat stunned group of judges. My junior teammate advanced in competition; I regressed to more sci-fi and a new author called Stephen King.
The thing about reading poetry out loud is that it reminds me of nothing so much as reading prayers, which i well understand as a native Hebrew speaker. Surprisingly, though, (especially as an English major in college) I never made this connection until I read your post. Thank you.
I heard from another friend whose father is both a poet and a chazan!! The linkage is very real; think about about much of our liturgy is written in acrostic or repetitive form as it pre-dates written copies.
The thing about reading poetry out loud is that it reminds me of nothing so much as reading prayers, which i well understand as a native Hebrew speaker. Surprisingly, though, (especially as an English major in college) I never made this connection until I read your post. Thank you.
I heard from another friend whose father is both a poet and a chazan!! The linkage is very real; think about about much of our liturgy is written in acrostic or repetitive form as it pre-dates written copies.