{"id":70172,"date":"2021-04-17T21:23:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T01:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/?p=70172"},"modified":"2021-05-06T12:19:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T16:19:27","slug":"100-poems-to-break-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/2021\/04\/17\/100-poems-to-break-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Poems to Break Your Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nMessage in a Bottle<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 1998, poet, educator, and MacArthur Fellow Edward Hirsch<\/strong><\/a> wrote How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry<\/em><\/a>, a bestselling book that remains in print still today. Hirsch’s essays<\/a> are exciting guideposts and prompts for enjoying and understanding poetry better. Hirsch uses numerous examples that illuminate the emotive power and satisfaction one can have from reading great poetry.<\/p>\n

In chapter one of How to Read a Poem <\/em>the metaphor of a \u201cmessage in a bottle\u201d\u2014borrowed from Paul Celan and quoted by Walter Benjamin describes how (if you allow it) poetry can come ashore in one\u2019s life, helping create something profound and magical within the reader. Once found, the message may often need a guide to help decipher its meaning and that is where Hirsch excels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hirsch writes, \u201cWe discover in poetry that we are participating in something which cannot be explained or apprehended by reason or understanding alone. We participate in the imaginary. We create a space for fantasy, we enter our dream life, dream time. We deepen our breathing, our mindfulness to being, our spiritual alertness.\u201d Hirsch maps the emotional elements that connect us to words–a message more condensed in his new book, 100 Poems to Break Your Heart<\/em> <\/strong><\/a>–a book that collects two hundred years of poetry addressing sorrow, grief, and our ability to become stronger in awareness and more humane by allowing poetry into our lives. Hirsch has created a universal meditation of the heart at a time when it’s needed most.<\/p>\n

100 Poems<\/em> is 492 pages, organized by time periods. From Wordsworth in 1815, to Meena Alexander in 2018, one hundred poets –representing a selective harvest of the past two hundred years. Following a short biographical fragment on each author is the featured poem. Hirsch\u2019s commentary ends each selection which average four or five pages. Compact readings for shorter attention spans in these difficult times.<\/p>\n

Included is Anna Akhmatova\u2019s elegy of Mikhail Bulgakov, beloved author of The Master and Margarita<\/em><\/a> expressing the shadowy act of writing under an oppressive regime. Hirsch observes, “The speaker’s sorrow expands from mourning the friend she has lost to mourning the life she has lost.”<\/p>\n

The Langston Hughes poem \u201cSong for a Dark Girl\u201d speaks out against the violence of lynching, and Hirsch explains how the poem’s power is magnified against the racist confederate lyrics of \u201cWay Down South in Dixie.\u201d Hirsch writes, \u201cHughes brilliantly combines in just three quatrains a soulful elegy, a spiritual reckoning, a critique of racism, a scathing commentary on the South, and a stark vision of lynching.”<\/p>\n

Local Detroit-Iraqi poet in exile Dunya Mikhail is represented with \u201cThe War Works Hard\u201d\u2014a poem Hirsch found was filled \u201cwith fateful understanding of what war does to people, those who kill and those being killed,\u201d and how Mikhail closes in on war with \u201ca new kind of anti-war poem\u201d\u2014sardonic and filled with irony. \u201cIt approaches the subject of violent destruction,\u201d said Hirsch, \u201cwith cutting wit, fierce humor, and brave humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozens of examples from all eras and traditions pepper the anthology. With a sense of thoughtful reflection, Hirsch has thrown readers a life raft of poetry and critique to uplift and connect with. 100 Poems<\/em> is enjoyable and easily dipped into repeatedly. Hirsch\u2019s commentaries are the main course. His writings about poetry are some of the best and can help open you up to discovering more.<\/p>\n

How to Read a Poem<\/em> and 100 Poems to Break Your Heart<\/em> complement each other and should be essential for poets, students of poetry and those with even a slight interest. They can help intensify a better reading experience and are useful references in the history and art of poetry.<\/p>\n

A Poetry Celebration Online<\/strong><\/p>\n

For National Poetry Month, Book Beat will be hosting a Live Zoom event with Edward Hirsch who will be discussing his new book on Independent Bookstore Day, Saturday<\/strong>, April 24 at 7 PM. Hirsch will be joined with poets Maria Mazziotti Gillian, Dunya Mikhail, Diane DeCillis, M. L. Liebler, and Zilka Joseph. Registration is free at EVENTBRITE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message in a Bottle In 1998, poet, educator, and MacArthur Fellow Edward Hirsch wrote How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, a bestselling book that remains in print still today. Hirsch’s essays are exciting guideposts and prompts for enjoying and understanding poetry better. Hirsch uses numerous examples that illuminate the emotive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[670,349],"class_list":["post-70172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-edward-hirsch","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}