The reason I think the Kierkegaard quote is pertinent to poetry -- or indeed to all art -- is that art is an expression of the deeply personal. In effect, a poem is a person on a page for all eternity, or as long as it takes to scrunch it up for toilet paper 
I don't believe labels equate to words, it's the kind of words that worry me. For example, on some poetry sites when you post a poem they recommend that you also put it into a category -- I have always refused to do this. Categories seem flippant, a dismissal of any other possible reading.
If a poem is posted for critique or workshopping, I'm delighted to take it to pieces or have the same done to one of mine. In that crucial stage, breaking it into parts will ensure that the finished product is as flawless as possible -- however, once a poem is to be read for poetry's sake alone, I want to bloody well enjoy it (or hate it) and explanations be damned!
PS. There can be no Armagnac in evidence on Burns Night you know...
I don't believe labels equate to words, it's the kind of words that worry me. For example, on some poetry sites when you post a poem they recommend that you also put it into a category -- I have always refused to do this. Categories seem flippant, a dismissal of any other possible reading.If a poem is posted for critique or workshopping, I'm delighted to take it to pieces or have the same done to one of mine. In that crucial stage, breaking it into parts will ensure that the finished product is as flawless as possible -- however, once a poem is to be read for poetry's sake alone, I want to bloody well enjoy it (or hate it) and explanations be damned!
PS. There can be no Armagnac in evidence on Burns Night you know...
It could be worse