I believe that poetry should communicate.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
Poetry is the communication through words of certain experiences that can be communicated in no other way.
Poetry is really a way of sharing feelings and ideas.
I would admit that poetry is something more than mere communication and that if that 'something more' could be abstracted from the whole, it might well prove to be that which makes the whole a poem.
So, poetry becomes a means for useful dialogue between people who are not only unknown, but mute to each other. It produces a dialogue among people that guards all of us against manipulation by our so-called leaders.
I think poetry is able to say things in such a small, perfect way that are so hard to say. I think it's a perfect medium for expressing difficult ideas and concepts and feelings. It's one of my great loves.
Poems are a form of music, and language just happens to be our instrument - language and breath.
I think poetry should be read very much like prose, except that the line breaks should be acknowledged somehow.
At school, I was never given a sense that poetry was something flowery or light. It's a complex and controlled way of using language. Rhythms and the music of it are very important. But the difficulty is that poetry makes some kind of claim of honesty.
All poetry has to do is to make a strong communication. All the poet has to do is listen. The poet is not an important fellow. There will also be another poet.