{"id":483,"date":"2009-10-15T22:39:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T22:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/?p=483"},"modified":"2009-10-15T22:39:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-15T22:39:00","slug":"the-plain-language-of-poets-and-troubadours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/?p=483","title":{"rendered":"The Plain Language of Poets and Troubadours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_t8QqmnputW4\/StiNtg8pkMI\/AAAAAAAAAI4\/qiVr3vcByuY\/s1600-h\/Mary_Oliver_cathedral_200705.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_t8QqmnputW4\/StiNtg8pkMI\/AAAAAAAAAI4\/qiVr3vcByuY\/s400\/Mary_Oliver_cathedral_200705.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><br \/>I think the reason her words speak so eloquently to so many is because of her plain language. As she said, she likes plain language. Poetry&#8217;s no fun when it&#8217;s so lofty and literary that you can&#8217;t understand it. I think it&#8217;s similar to why Shakespeare spoke to so many in his day and still does. (&#8220;Brevity is the wit of reason&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>When listening to Mary Oliver read her poems the other night, it was like listening to a warm conversation, both wild and deep &#8212; full of meaning in its blessedly simple language. (And her sense of humor was totally unexpected and totally cool).<\/p>\n<p>Reading poetry and hearing it spoken are two different experiences. Having heard her read them, her poems spoke to me more clearly. I&#8217;ve read them, of course, but I&#8217;m lazy. I&#8217;d rather listen to her say the words. Straight, real and to the heart. Unpretentious.<\/p>\n<p>I believe poetry is language meant to be spoken. Perhaps that&#8217;s why the expression &#8220;poets and troubadours&#8221; moves frequently through my consciousness lately.<\/p>\n<p>** photo from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diomass.org\/\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think the reason her words speak so eloquently to so many is because of her plain language. As she said, she likes plain language. Poetry&#8217;s no fun when it&#8217;s so lofty and literary that you can&#8217;t understand it. I think it&#8217;s similar to why Shakespeare spoke to so many in his day and still &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/?p=483\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Plain Language of Poets and Troubadours&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[631],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artfoodsoul.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}