Poetry: What It Is, and How to Understand It

I have watched and listened to the Professor's first six lectures and wish to express my thanks for having had that privilege. I "accede" to (with?) her about everything she's elaborated upon thus far. I have had my own moments where Time and Space was (were?) Arrested, so I know how powerful a feeling that such a conflagration can engender, and how it needs somehow to be expressed. On another note, I own a copy of G. Keillor's, "Good Poems" and find it full of beautiful and shadowy substances that are just oblique enough to keep me wanting more of them. When judging whether a poem is a good poem or a bad poem I look solely to myself and say, "Wow. That's a good poem." If it pleases me, entertains me, informs me, or good lord, changes me in some indecipherable way then I am glad to have had made its acquaintance. Poems that are totally inpenetrable by me, I hope one day to understand, in the same way that I hope to win the lottery someday. I really do want to win. Poems that are but partially revealing of themselves challenge me, no, tease me like lingerie added to a fine nude model. The truth is meant to be more than oblique, or we'd be in Eden, and not here sucking on apples. (Apologies to Ms. Sexton). Finally, thanks again to Professor Soltan for a remarkable series of lectures on a subject that has certainly (see Douglas Adams famous "Guide") universal implications for the state of beings.