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Pat,
For what it's worth. . . I read a lot of poetry, and WCW is one poet who has managed to keep me scratching my head. I've tried to read Spring & All at least three times now and I find it unnecessarily unapproachable.

P.S. Don't give up on poetry. The world is full of poets, and he's probably not the one for you.
I suspect you'd like Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara, and possibly The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes.

Julie, thank you. That makes me feel a lot better. Going into this I thought, “this is about New Jersey, of course I will understand it!�� Boy was I wrong. It is not even that I did not enjoy it. I just straight up did not understand it and therefore can not pass judgement on it either way. And the fact that it has so many glowing reviews on GR makes me feel as if I am stupid!

It's so exciting to me to see poetry being read, I don't even take it as a failure if the reader doesn't connect to it. It's the effort that's meaningful. I think this is the mistake that we make in school with students and poetry--we don't assign enough, or give students a wide enough selection to find their poets. Time is limited, I know that, but if we could see enough of what's out there, we'd find our people.
By the way, have you read Roth's Goodbye Columbus yet? Talk about a New Jersey read!

I have such a hard time with poetry. I'm an English major who took SO many various literature and creative writing classes. And I avoided poetry whenever possible lol. It makes me feel like an idiot.

My only exposure to poetry was in high school English class. Of course it was taught in a way which lead me to loathe it. I have only recently started reading poetry for reasons secondary to actually wanting to read poetry. For instance, I recently read some of Sebald's poetry only because I loved his novels so much. And as I mentioned, I read WCW because he wrote about NJ. Whatever my reason for starting was, I think that I should keep at it. But I need to take a few steps back and start with some easier-to-grapple-with poets. I will definitely look into O'Hara and Hughes. I have already heard good things about them. Also, I others have recommended Robert Frost. Have you read any of him? If so, did you like?

And yes I did read Goodbye, Columbus. It was the first Phillip Roth book I ever read. It is one of the most New Jersey books I have ever read. I don't think I ever connected with a book on a more personal level. It was like it was written about my first relationship!

Val,
As an unpaid poetry concierge on here, I can't help but recommend this one to you now:
Hairdo

Val, I am glad to hear I am in good company.

Yes, Robert Frost is amazing, and there's so much more to his poetry than meets the eye. If you were going to go there, I would recommend starting with a "best of" collection. If you don't connect with his "greatest hits," you probably wouldn't love the more obscure ones. He was my "New Hampshire" selection for earlier this year. As I'm down to my last 6 states, it seems like the east coast was a long time ago!

Julie wrote: "Val,
As an unpaid poetry concierge on here, I can't help but recommend this one to you now:
Hairdo"
I trust you, Julie, so maybe I’ll give it a shot! Sorry to hijack your space, Pat. I’m a dick lol

Val, no need to apologize. All are welcome.

Val,
You're the only person who can call you a dick. If anyone else tries it, I'll start stirring something special for them in my cauldron.
That poetry collection will have you cracking up. They're not all fabulous, but overall they're sexy, snarky and often laugh out loud funny. I feel like that Rachel Glaser created a whole new genre with that collection.

Julie wrote: "Val,
You're the only person who can call you a dick. If anyone else tries it, I'll start stirring something special for them in my cauldron.
That poetry collection will have you cracking up. They'r..."
Well, thanks Julie. You’re a sweetheart. And you know my snarky ass loves some snark. I’ll check it out!