ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO (ANS) -- Part of my regular habit as a person who greatly appreciates the written word is to attend poetry readings. I’m one of the odd fellows that comb through the newspaper looking for readings to attend.

Poet, Adam Rubinstein

To be honest, some readings are great; others not so great. As one can imagine, the event depends on the delivery by the poet and quality of the poem being read. If one element is lacking, the reading can turn to boredom, and at times, embarrassment.

Part of the allure of attending these readings is to find someone who is a really great poet, a person that can unearth what it means to be human in all its assorted variances: someone who understands the craft of writing and reading a great poem.

Being that it is National Poetry Month, I decided to check out several of the readings happening around town to see if there was someone out there I resonated with.

As it turned out, I found such a person: Adam Rubinstein.

I came across Adam at a local bookstore called Acequia (the Spanish word we use for canals here in New Mexico). His poems were well crafted, thoughtful, and very human. Additionally, his lecture was engaging and, at times, confrontational to certain forms of poetry.

But I get ahead of myself.

Poet, Levi Romero

As I walked into the small bookstore, twenty or so people had gathered to hear the lecture and readings. Intimate, but decent for a Sunday afternoon. Looking up, I saw the poet Levi Romero. His book A Poetry of Remembrance (UNM Press) was one of my favorites from last year. I thought, “This can’t be too bad if Levi is here.”

I decided to purchase Adam’s book before I heard the lecture. I headed over to have him sign a copy (I collect signed poetry books). Adam was talking with Levi. As I was handing the book to Adam, Levi looked up at me and said, “You won’t be able to put this down. It is a great book.” I said to myself, “A fine endorsement, indeed.”

Two poets were lecturing and reading at this reading. The first was Brendan Constantine, a poet and teacher from Los Angeles. He did an amazing job capturing the power and allure of poetry through his lecture and reading. And when he read George Herbert’s poem on prayer, that was it—I was fan of his lecture.

Herbert was an Anglican pastor and poet living in the 16th century, and one of my favorite poets. The poem Brendan read is as follows:

PRAYER (I) (written in Olde English)

PRAYER the Churches banquet, Angels age,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth ;

Engine against th’ Almightie, sinner's towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six daies world-transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear ;

Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bels beyond the stars heard, the souls bloud,
The land of spices, something understood.

Brendan rightfully pointed out that this poem is about 200 years ahead of its time in craft and style. Simply put, it’s a great poem. And Brendan did a beautiful job in reading it with the grandeur it deserves.

Next came Adam. Adam’s lecture was informative and passionate, and as mentioned above, somewhat opinionated to other forms (non-linear, etc.) of poetry. For Adam, poetry must resonate with the human condition and be approachable to people. Two qualities I value myself.

As much as I found Rubinstein’s lecture satisfying, it wasn’t until I went home and began to read Adam’s poems in his book, Freshwater Dredge (Destructible Heart Press) that I realized that Adam was quite a poet, capturing what he preached in this lecture. His poems are very human and approachable.

Take for example Rubinstein’s poem “Sprague Preschool”:

By fourth grade, we know
if we’ll never be popular
and have perfected the lonely art of staring.

We have memorized every forsaken
crack in the cafeteria walls.
We can guess the time to within half an hour
from the angle and brightness
of the grass. We enter new rooms
and immediately study the intersections
of walls or scratches in the tile.

But at four, my sister is still standing
In the middle of the classroom
asking some girl to play
Connect Four.
And when the girl turns
to another girl, suddenly smiling
with a fist of crayons
for the first time in her life,
my sister does not know
where to look.

As you can read, the poem is approachable, using common words and everyday themes. But the mystery of it’s overall meaning is hidden. Is the sister about to get a dose of cruelty from the other girls? Is she going to be invited to play? Is this poem about loneliness and cruelty or about acceptance?

The elements of the poetry book, Freshwater Dredge

Without getting into a formal assessment of the poem, the point I am making is that Rubinstein is hitting on universal themes, something all people—at one time or another—are going to feel and experience. Rubinstein is able to capture a moment where we find ourselves as the main character. All of us are looking for acceptance; we’ve been the recipients of cruelty. We can understand his sister’s predicament in this poem. We can feel like we are the one not “knowing where to look.”

The bottom line is that Rubinstein’s poem—like any good poem—will cause us to consider, think, ponder, and react to (and with) the poem’s main themes.

Poetry can (and should) help us become more aware of ourselves as human beings in a world that is quickly denigrating the role and acceptance of what it means to be human.

It’s sad to me that poetry is not more widely read in our world today. There was a time when the recitation of poetry was mandated and expected of all students. True, there is a small resurgence of poetry with Slam Poets and Performance poetry, but the truth is the written form has slipped in sales over the years.

So why read poetry? The answer is hinted at above: to grow as human beings, to gain understanding of the big questions of life, to nurture our mind and soul. Just as importantly, to have fun and enjoy finding meaning in another person’s experience and thoughts: to ask ourselves, “Does this relate to me, our world, our society?”

Poetry is a mirror of life. We read poetry to understand who we are in relationship to each other and—if we believe—God’s ordered world spoken through a word and the whisper of life.

Brian Nixon is a writer, musician, minister, and family man. You may contact him at www.briannixon.com