Book excerpt: “Story of a Poem” by Michael Zapruder

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In his memoir, “Story of a Poem” (Unnamed Press), the celebrated writer Michael Zapruder (author of “Father’s Day” and “Why Poetry,” asks questions about the writing of a poem, and the meaning of communication, after his son is diagnosed with autism.

Read an excerpt below. 

“Story of a Poem” by Matthew Zapruder

I have always loved words for what they can do, and for all the different things they can mean. I love how they feel in my mouth. In that way, I am like all writers I know. I am also very like my son. Now that I have become the parent of a son who is working so hard to achieve fluency in language, my respect for communication in all aspects of my life has increased. The simple act of reaching out in writing to say something to you, and you hearing me, and then responding, even if only in my imagination because you are far away and I will most likely never know you, feels even more holy to me. 

Poetry gives us the great gift of allowing us to forget, momentarily, that communicating is mostly functional. If we allow language to drift away from us, and don’t try to use but rather follow it, we can discover something. It is as if the imagination is more like a tool, or a sense like sight or hearing or memory, a deeper faculty, something that opens up the world to the poet and reader. When properly understood and deployed, the imagination can uncover truths that are not available elsewhere. 

According to Lorca, a lesser poet settles for merely imagining. A great poet is inspired, that is, breathed into by some force outside themselves. 

For me, imagination is synonymous with discovery. 

I do not believe in creation but in discovery, and I don’t believe in the seated artist but in the one who is walking down the road. 

The poetic imagination travels and transforms things, giving them their purest meaning, and it defines relationships no one had suspected. 

Poetry is like faith—it isn’t meant to be understood but to be received in a state of grace. 

     
Excerpted from “Story of a Poem” by Michael Zapruder. Copyright © 2023 by Michael Zapruder. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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“Story of a Poem” by Matthew Zapruder

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