Book Club Report: Poetry Does Not Have to Be Understood Correctly

Hello, this is Murakami from JIYUCHO.

Did you know that JIYUCHO holds a reading group twice a month on Sunday mornings before opening? Participants bring whatever book they want to read, spend the first hour reading, and then freely talk about impressions and thoughts.

In this blog, I introduce each session as the staff member who facilitated it. This time, I will report on the reading group held on Sunday, April 28.

When we asked participants why they joined, the answers varied: they wanted to read a book they had been meaning to start, they wanted to make progress on a book they needed to read for work, or they happened to find the event.

The genres of the books were also varied. Some looked difficult at first glance, while others brought back feelings of youth.

What we talked about after reading

Topics included whether poetry needs to be understood correctly, how people suddenly become expected to be perfect parents without training, how logic cannot fully explain cause and effect, how novels let us experience lives, and how a story about high school students can make us feel excited and tender.

The topic I found especially interesting was whether poetry needs to be understood correctly. It came from someone who had read a book about how people become poets.

Some participants said that when they read poetry, they begin wondering deeply what each expression means, or that they feel they must feel something, as when looking at an exhibition in a museum.

When reading works other than poetry, we often try to understand the story, the characters' emotions, or the content correctly. If we try to read poetry in the same way as novels or business books, it may not enter us easily.

According to the book discussed, however, perhaps we do not need to understand poetry. It may be enough to enjoy a phrase that feels good or an expression that seems beautiful. Thinking that way, poetry begins to feel easier to pick up.

I realized that I may enjoy poetry almost as if listening to music. I carry a poetry book from JIYUCHO and return to it in small moments.

At JIYUCHO and FUTO, poetry appears in many experiences and items, including TOMOSHIBI LETTER. Even if you do not usually read poetry, we hope you can meet it through another doorway.