something i posted somewhere else -- on meaning

[ellajam]

Just bumping this, with a reminder:  it doesn't matter if you don't get the same thing out of a poem as the next reader, or as the poet him/herself.  It's not a competition.

I know I've posted about this recently but that's what I love about poetry. When I like, sometimes love, a poem it makes no difference whether or not I got it "right". It's a partnership between me and the poem, it's given me something I want and I am loyal to it, will not give it up. I can understand when someone describes it differently or when the poet reveals they meant something else, but I got what I got and I'm keeping it. A master of delusion.