a word on the obscure

 

one enters the poet’s space with all they have if they care to        a poet as any other craftsperson never really gets it right      perfection is the pursuit and though at times clarity is the gift rendered  the experience of exchange plays a give and take role      so if you don’t ever understand a poet or a painter think of places you have gone where you probably won’t be understood and remember how interesting or boring it was to yourself or others and the words you would have given the emotion

 

as wallace stevens said   ‘all poetry is experimental’ and he wasn’t being figurative       he was being polite and the hermetic poets of europe knew the risk and created with no intentional obfuscation the transitions and variations in their voices        what was sacred  if that’s a good choice of words     the  pursuit and  creation of  new form as the surrealist and beat writers who practiced automatic writing also demonstrated  

 

yeah by it’s very nature   poetry is experimental  and more of rhythm and image than it is about meaning

 

the song you love or poem you love or painting you love has to do with an essential feel and disposition and curiosity       and you never know when it’s gonna hit you that clarity and meaning may cross with your need and the poet might be gone by then onto other work and nothing is ever fleeting