Self-Taught: How Do You Get Into Poetry?

One summer between college courses, I picked up a collection of Emily Dickinson poems. Since I compulsively collect these reputable artists like snow globes on an interior shelf, this felt like Someone I Had To Know (TM).

But my body repelled her poetry like a teething kid trying broccoli for the first time.

I flipped through the pages, organized by thematic emotions (like “love” or something, who knows). Nothing sparked. “Poetry must not be for me,” I thought with a quiet thrum of panic. The sh...