Just do it!

I really enjoyed Kathleen's post and the NYT article she points us to, but especially the discourse on fluency in "poetry language" having been pushed to the brink by the emergence of the novel (the apocalyptical language is mine:).  I couldn't help but think of my mother being loathe to read anything on the internet--I think she is as uncomfortable with what she finds there as any of my students are when I put poetry (modern or not) in front of them.  And I tell her, without meaning to be patronizing, just do it!  Just as I tell my students that they will learn to read poetry (and maybe to like it, although that isn't as essential to me as they think it is) by giving themselves permission to read poetry.