If you're listening to Away With Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett.

I've always been a voracious reader.

But recently, I find myself drawn to one genre in particular, and that's poetry.

And it sort of crept up on me.

I just noticed the other day that every single book on my nightstand was poetry.

Like Natasha Trethaway and Katie Ford and Billy Collins,

Audrey and Rich and Kay Ryan. And I'm not sure why I'm gravitating toward poetry above all the other forms,

but I'm thinking that maybe part of it is that we talk so often on the show about grammar.

And poetry pushes against the rules of grammar,

and I think because of that, it's a great way to learn how to do any kind of writing better.

I think poetry is such a great teacher, you know, you spend some time with it,

and you realize how much the style in which you say something can make your writing pack so much more of a punch,

even when you're writing prose. And Grant recently, I'm hearing about more and more teachers

who are using the poetry of hip-hop lyrics to teach writing in the classroom. They're building on

that poetry that their students already love. And so much of hip-hop really is poetic, isn't it? It is poetic. There's a couple

things to say to this. One is, if I can flatter you for a second, there is wisdom that comes with

maturity. And I think poetry requires life experience to get the most out of it.

That's, yeah, I agree with you. Because these ideas and concepts are so dense in there.

To unpack them, you must have lived a good life. That is very true. A thorough life at least, right? I think that's very true. That's a nice way of saying I'm getting older, right? No, I mean, we all get older. I agree. May you continue to grow older. Thank you. And the thing with hip hoppet tends to be a more emotional, have a higher impact. It's not very subtle, right?

Mm-hmm.

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