Holding the Reader's Interest

[wasellajam]

Lately I think it is kind of the only thing that matters. Obviously this isn't true but pretending it is might be useful. 

What are some examples of contemporary poems that grab and keep your attention? 

Or, what are some popular/lauded poems that you think don't actually do this well?

Outside of poems posted on this site (where I triple my concentration level), Tornado by Megan Falley is one of the few poems I've read recently that kept, keeps, my interest. It is an April poem copied from IG which may have been edited since but here's why it keeps me interested. It starts with "I admit", who doesn't like a juicy admission? The details of the peeves are so descriptive I can see them and their intimacy allows me to think "Those are not mine, these are mine." so I'm interacting with the poem. The conclusion circles back exquisitely, we all know how hard that is to do. It leads back to read again. Plus, of course, there's my personal preference for poems that break my heart by expressing the human experience in its precious details.

Tornado
for Andrea Gibson

I admit, you drove me crazy.
The careless way you’d salt a tomato,
no napkin or plate beneath it.
Just right over the floor,
your summer snow, trusting
someone else would sweep it.

And you never took your boots off.
Only ever used half a stevia packet.
The rest would collect in the crevices
of car doors, divots no vacuum could reach.
There was nothing you couldn’t fix
with duct tape, or shoelaces
stolen from other people’s shoes.

And you broke everything
you borrowed. All those stains
you called heart-shaped.
Plus you lost my heirlooms.
Not because you didn’t care,
but because you moved so fast,
like maybe you always knew
you would leave too soon—

so why waste a minute
screwing the cap back on
the pickle jar? Do you remember
how many times you thought
something was stolen?
That we’d been invaded?
Because you couldn’t wait
that extra breath to look.
You loved me

because I always found everything.
I always assured you:
nothing was taken from us.
Not even time.

It’s all such a mess—
how immaculate
the house is now.
All I want is you
tracking muddy bootprints
across my life.

Come back, fix this
with my missing shoelaces.
Why did I care
that we were walking
on salt?

Come home.
I will call it the beach.

-Megan Falley

---

It seems to me that a reader's loss of interest (or boredom setting in, if you will)  is an event rather than a characteristic of the poem (or other work).

It is *not* the reader looking at the work as gray text and deciding it's too long, or looking at the title and deciding he won't like its philosophy.  Or even just seeing the writer's name and deciding to go no further from past experience or what he's been told about that author (including his political alignment).

No, to *become* bored or disinterested, the reader has to *start* reading.  What in the poem then triggers the event of his deciding to stop before he reaches the end?  Obviously, it disappoints his expectations.  He expected continued, or at least occasional novel wordplay, and he's not getting it.  Or he expects a story, and it's either not there or not going anywhere.  Or he expects to feel an emotion (particular or a generally heightened state) and the poem isn't triggering it.

After that initial realization (or labeling) of boredom, the reader may go a bit further - even to the end, if he's a bit of a masochist - and if he's honest, might find redeeming virtues.  But the critical moment is that realization he's not enjoying himself as much as, or in the way, he expected.

So to prevent boredom, the author must continually - or periodically - stroke the reader's expectations.  Not for nothing is "challenging" a kiss of death:  he can't demand too much attention, and above all he can't expose purposes or beliefs that are contrary to the reader's.  Boredom is  discomfort seeking an excuse to stop, and it feels guilty to the extent it's dishonest.

The lesson is, know your audience (in particular, readers whose good opinion  you value).  Stroke them as they wish to be stroked and keep it short.  This doesn't mean your poem has to be all sugar and flowers - some readers are worth plying with objectively good poetry.  But the question was how to avoid boring readers, not how to write a good poem.

Well said. My only slight quibble is the last line, the goal is to engage to the point of being a "good" poem. Or edit an engaging piece into a good poem.