How important is it to you that a poet communicate and connect with you as a rea

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   Jaggedfrostposted 13 years ago

   How important is it to you that a poet communicate and connect with you as a reader?
   
   Is poetry more of an intellectual pursuit to be admired on its own merits or do you expect more then that?

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   Lamar Johnsposted 13 years ago

   For me, it is important, but not necessary for a poet to communicate and connect with me. When reading a poem I don't expect to understand it. I don't even strive to consider a poem as something that needs to be grasped in order to be liked and or disliked. It is that very action of trying to understand the poem which causes many to, well, not understand it.
   
   As cliche as it sounds, I let the poem speak to me and not the poet. When reading a poets work, I don't consider the poet first and then the poem, I consider the poem as an entirely different enitity or rather an extension of that particular poet. It is about what I can take away from the piece rather than what the poet is trying to communicate with me. Often times that connection, at least for me, develops through understanding that poet despite not being in their shoes.

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      Jaggedfrostposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      How do you let it speak to you when you don't know what it is supposed to say?

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      Lamar Johnsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It's just a matter of not trying to figure it out what it's supposed to say or at least wiping from my mind that notion that ones intent always has to be rather forceful in order to decipher meaning from a poem. Basically I say to myself what is the

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   duffsmomposted 13 years ago

   Not at all really because poetry should convery what the author wants to convery -whether I get it or not.  I think the poet needs to write from the heart and not to the audience.  If a poet puts down on paper what they want to convey - then they have been successful.  To have someone read it and enjoy is a treat but for me the success comes from the writing.

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      duffsmomposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I need typing lessons - meant to write "convery" not convery!  LOL

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      Jaggedfrostposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      :-)I think you wrote it twice this time as well but you conveyed your point well.

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      duffsmomposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Holey Moley!! Convey Convey Convey Convey ---geesh - I'm hopeless.

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   Adnirim96posted 13 years ago

   It's important but should not be the basis for a particular piece. I would love to reach everyone with my poetry. However, when I'm writing it's from my heart & at that time, nothing else matters but getting it out...

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   AM Hansonposted 13 years ago

   I think there should be a high level of communication and connectivity, so that, even if the intended meaning is completely lost on them, the reader can more easily see their own meaning in the piece.  I'm a creative writing major in my final year of college, and i cannot tell you how many poems I've had to read that just seemed to go over my head.  But I had to read them, because they were "good pieces" and, I'll admit, they were extremely well written.  However, the only pieces that I felt myself drawn into and really influenced by were those I could connect to, or at least communicated to me the poems intent.
   
   One of the first poems I read in college, and one of my favorites to this day, is "This Is Just To Say" by William Carlos Williams.  It's only twelve lines long and is one of the most straightforward poems I have ever read:
   
   I have eaten
   the plums
   that were in
   the icebox
   
   and which
   you were probably
   saving
   for breakfast
   
   Forgive me
   they were delicious
   so sweet
   and so cold
   
   
   It's silly and strange, but I love it because it communicates its purpose so well, and i can so easily connect to it, because i have left notes like this myeslf.
   
   But I'm getting off topic, so I'll wrap it up: communication is, to me as a writer and as a reader, of utmost importance.  It shows effort on the author's part, both the effort to get his or her point across and the effort that we, as the reader, take away something from the piece.

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      duffsmomposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      William Carlos Williams - one of my favorites.  He had such a unique ability to take the common place and turn it into art.

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