Where does poetry fit into my day? How does it enhance everyday experience? Unlike fiction, I don’t read it consistently. I have tried to get into the habit of reading poetry more frequently, but I never keep it up.

The value of fiction in everyday life is more clear than that of poetry. Stories are entertaining. They allow a means of escape. They activate the imagination. Fiction encourages curiosity about an experience different from one’s own.

For any type of writing, to enjoy reading it, the mind has to warm up to it. The experience of reading is somewhere in between being awake and dreaming. When one deeply engages with reading, the images start moving, and the experience is like a movie. Poetry is often short, and the mind doesn’t get the opportunity to warm up. I find, when I open a book of poems, I can’t predict whether my mind will be ready to engage with the poem. When it does happen to be ready, a poem can hit hard. Two days ago, I read “The Message” in Charles Simek’s collection, “Scribbled in the Dark.” It seemed to speak directly to my emotional moment. Today, I opened the collection, and the poems passed without impact.