23. [That Shining Place] by Mark Van Doren

I haven't read much poetry since my college courses wrapped up years ago, but I do pick up my favorites from time to time - Rilke, Frost, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Dickinson and even contemporaries Jared Carter and Sherman Alexie. Actually...I guess I still do read a bit of poetry....

Anyway, Mark Van Doren's collection, once I got beyond the title (which I liked a lot) and just two or three poems that I enjoyed, but I didn't feel changed by, was a challenge to get through. Van Doren's book was published 1969, but was using language as if it were written 100 years earlier. The problem was, I didn't feel any sincerity in Van Doren's work and it seemed like the writing tried too hard. I understand that some of the very best poets would agonize over the right word for days or even weeks, but ultimately, the poems seem natural, they have convey a feeling or emotion in such a way that even something familiar to the reader seems new.

Van Doren's work? Not so much. At least it didn't strike a chord with me and I'm going to be reading through Rilke again to experience poetry that gives me a feeling that I'm being changed as a person when I read it. ( )