We are not taught how to read poetry in school. We're taught to memorize it, and to analyze it. Enjoyment is something that maybe college students get to do. But for those of us who had to read in high school? Poetry is something you have two hours to write a thousand words about.
People therefore come to poetry via. other means. In the digital age, that's social media: Tumblr poets get reblogged, Instagram poets flash couplets on manicured pictures, and people press play buttons on YouTube in front of a black wall. This is a weird situation to be in! It's a very happy one.
Poetry, it turns out, is alive and well. Sarah Kay is fantastic. I have a good twenty five minutes everyday when I take a subway- not Kay's charismatic New York subway, but a subway all the same- and twenty five minutes is the perfect amount of time to do nothing, like surf the web or Twitter or Reddit or godforbid Facebook. However, twenty five minutes is also the perfect time to read a poem or five. It lets you chew them, like you're supposed to, without the pressure of a paper to write.
Of course, when you get off the subway, and sit where you're going, you can throw on a video of Kay reading the poem in its full glory. Poetry is meant to be spoken, after all. Poetry is an artform that is by its nature, both meant to be read and meant to be spoken. You have to do both, (or at least have somebody speak it for you) or you miss out on it, like reading the captions of a comedy special while its on mute or only listening to the special's audiotrack.
Sarah's poems are relieving reads. They're not relaxing because they certainly stir the mind. They're not exactly fun, because they're often heavy (though not exclusively in the slighest). They relieve certain unseen stresses that you might not know you have, or they prick your feelings in a way that reminds you those feelings still exist. The poems do not make you feel better, but they remind you that you will. They remind you that, like poetry, you will be alive and well.
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