The Palate

[Todd]

I was giving some thought to the article Leanne shared on how to know if your poetry sucks. It made me reflect on why reading good poetry is so important. I think of it like the TV show Hell's Kitchen. Gordon Ramsey usually has a segment where he blindfolds the contestants and has them identify ingredients. His palate is trained to taste everything. He gets more out of food than I imagine I would. The contestants who can't identify tastes are criticized. How can they not know food and be chefs. I think it is like that with poetry. When we start out we can barely identify the flavors. The more we read the more refined our palate gets. People sometimes confuse refined tastes with a lack of raw authenticity, but I think its more like a person who ate macaroni and cheese all their life suddenly realizing there's more out there. Reading brings you that.

Just some thoughts.