Sienna Tohar Week 4 - Pick-a-Poet #1

 I used to love poetry, both as something I read and wrote, but ever since beginning high school/extracurricular classes a few years ago, I found it more difficult to get myself to put time aside to just read and appreciate poetry. So, being able to just go through an enormous list of poets was actually satisfying (and kind of relaxing, too). Even though poetry is open for all kinds of interpretations, sometimes reading many of them and noticing specific patterns in imagery, symbols, adjectives, themes, etc., can make it feel a bit repetitive and (dare I say) even predictable. This is where Leila Chatti’s “The Rules” swooped right in. 

    “The Rules” has a quite monotonous feeling to it, despite all the different items, colors, and general things that are mentioned. In fact, much of what Chatti talks about are things you might have heard countless times in other poems. The way I see it, is that these ‘things’ are the rules (rules of poetry, that is. The things that are often described in poetry). When I started to think about it, I noticed exactly how much I have read about angels, children, butterflies, God, mothers, the color blue, and much more so many times before! “The Rules” is all about defying these assumptions about the (sometimes stereotypical) descriptions used in poetry to depict abstract themes, like experiences or emotions. Chatti makes it seem as though the poem itself is reassuring you that, “there will be no stars - the poem has had enough of them...Here, no monarchs, no moths, no cicadas doing whatever they do in trees,” will be mentioned, or, “shards, no kittens, no myths, or fairy tales...no pomegranates or rainbows.” I find the tone rather abrupt because of how simple yet effective Chatti puts a quick end to the assumption of what’s to come (or be said/written, in this context). 

Chatti describes how this specific piece was written at a time in her life where she faced this creative and depressive block. I felt a connection to it because I’ve definitely ‘been there!’ Who hasn’t? Writer’s or artist’s block is especially frustrating in that creative outlets are supposed to help with blowing off steam or apathetic and/or sad emotional episodes. Chatti continues to provide the reader with different descriptions on how “there is no blue in this poem,” or that the poem does not take place “at dawn or dusk or noon or the witching hour or crescendoing moment…” but finally ends with the stars she had mentioned at the beginning, the first thing she denied would be spoken of. And she says how there’s one thing she wants to tell the reader about, and it’s the recollection of her walk the night before. She walked with joy, true joy, “for the first time in a year to be breathing in the cold dark, to see them. The stars.” And how right before something might have stopped her from basking in that soothing moment of simplicity, she “nearly wept at the sight of them all.” 

I find that last line really beautiful simply because of how present Chatti finally found herself in a moment where nothing else was important except for her viewing of the stars. I think it’s so easy to fall into the trap of just following what you think needs to be said/written when faced with a writer’s block. I think this also applies to more than just writing, but starting new things in general, and following the pack. We forget that loving what we create is part of our creations sincerely coming from deep within ourselves, not what we observe around us, outside of us.  

At first, Leila Chatti’s work didn’t instantly leave such a stupendous impression on me because I imagined the writer I would pick would excite me with the first few lines (which is pretty impatient of me). But, instead, I find time and time again as I read more of Chatti’s work, that it’s always the end that gets me! When she wraps up the point of her thoughts and it all ties together so nicely, making sense, and making me go “wow.” That’s my favorite part.