{"id":119336,"date":"2017-12-27T13:00:59","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T18:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=119336"},"modified":"2017-12-19T11:15:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T16:15:52","slug":"unlocking-the-unconscious-through-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/27\/unlocking-the-unconscious-through-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking the Unconscious Through Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>We\u2019re away until January 3, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2017. Enjoy your holiday!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_113986\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/trp_heritage.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-113986\" class=\"size-full wp-image-113986\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/trp_heritage.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"663\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/trp_heritage.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/trp_heritage-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/trp_heritage-768x509.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-113986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thiago Rocha Pitta, <em>Heritage<\/em>, 2007. Courtesy of the artist, Galeria Millan, S\u00e3o Paulo, and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen. \u00a9 Thiago Rocha Pitta<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On the cover of this pocket-size edition of John Ashbery\u2019s <em>Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror<\/em>, the poet stands in a doorway. He wears the somehow simultaneously ill-advised and completely stylish ensemble of a half-unbuttoned patterned shirt and tight beltless pants. Looking closer, the doorway seems to open not to a room or to the outside but to a closet: on a shelf behind him there is a pot or urn, and the flatness of the photograph makes it seem a bit as if he is wearing it on his head, like a bizarre hat. He is looking straight out of the front of the book, with a direct, slightly furrowed expression. He is about to smile beneath his full mustache. Something strange is just about to happen.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/14\/advice-how-to-drift-through-poems\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Read More &gt;&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the poem gives you that \u201cdrifting experience,\u201d it is doing what it is supposed to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32152],"tags":[27045,30096,30097,17761,30101,30095,30094,2599,5234,26110,7221,165,30093,30098,30100,30099],"class_list":["post-119336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2017","tag-american-poetry","tag-association","tag-associative","tag-close-reading","tag-conversations-on-the-frontier-of-dreaming","tag-drifting","tag-how-to-read-a-poem","tag-how-to-read-poetry","tag-john-ashbery","tag-matthew-zapruder","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-self-portrait-in-a-convex-mirror","tag-the-one-thing-that-can-save-america","tag-thomas-h-ogden","tag-why-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew Zapruder: Advice on How to Read a Poem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An excerpt from \u2018Why Poetry\u2019: \u201cIf the poem gives you that \u2018drifting experience,\u2019 it is doing what it is supposed to do.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/27\/unlocking-the-unconscious-through-poetry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unlocking the Unconscious Through Poetry by Matthew Zapruder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 27, 2017 \u2013 If the poem gives you that \u201cdrifting experience,\u201d it is doing what it is supposed to do.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/27\/unlocking-the-unconscious-through-poetry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-27T18:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/trp_heritage.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"663\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Zapruder\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Zapruder\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/27\/unlocking-the-unconscious-through-poetry\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/27\/unlocking-the-unconscious-through-poetry\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matthew Zapruder\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1f3d0eb0b395e7c47ee37b5d6a7d2277\"},\"headline\":\"Unlocking the Unconscious Through Poetry\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-27T18:00:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/27\/unlocking-the-unconscious-through-poetry\/\"},\"wordCount\":187,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/27\/unlocking-the-unconscious-through-poetry\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/trp_heritage.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"American poetry\",\"association\",\"associative\",\"close reading\",\"Conversations on the Frontier of Dreaming\",\"drifting\",\"how to read a poem\",\"how to read poetry\",\"John Ashbery\",\"Matthew Zapruder\",\"poems\",\"poetry\",\"Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror\",\"The One Thing That Can Save America\",\"Thomas H. 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