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The Lost Art of Reading Alone
You can’t be a good poet unless you read the great poets
Poets are created by reading poetry. Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the U.S., says you must read 10,000 hours of poetry to find your own voice. In today’s crazy busy world, I can hardly find anyone who can sit still and read for even ten minutes without a major attack of squirrel brain, let alone a relaxing hour with a good poet and a glass of wine.
This is also why I think there are so few fresh voices… no one can pay the dues of reading until you find yourself. But if you needed 10,000 hours of scrolling, every kid in the country would be the next Amanda Gorman.
But reading a book? That is like watching your grandmother use a rolling pin to roll out the dough for a pie. Like being pulled into a 1950s movie in black and white with John Wayne (I know, I know, he used to be somebody if you are old). You want me to read a paper book? Isn’t that something my great grandparents did by the light of wood fires before walking six miles to school in the snow and milking the cows?
Most people under forty are more likely to run a marathon naked with a beer bottle in hand than being able to sit quietly, for a continuous thirty minutes, and read an actual paper book. Ping, ping, ping, must put book down and answer phone. Bleep…
