[split] The Nothing

[ajcohen613]

If you have no "goal" or set sentiment, are not trying to communicate anything, and deny any meaning is inherent in the poem what reason do you give for the reader to read you poem?

Well, I'm not saying the poem is totally obscure and pointless.. at least I hope it doesn't seem that way. I like feeling free to write whatever it is I'd like to...sometimes writing with a set meaning in mind stands as a limitation in regards to what I can write. My first and only poetry professor told me once to "let the words guide your thinking", which I understood as allowing language to guide my thoughts when I was stuck rather than the other way around...kind of like writing oneself out of a thinking-block versus thinking oneself out of a writing-block; I find the former much more rewarding and effective. Yea I admit it, in writing poetry I do tend to self-indulge; it is more about what feels good/right for me as a writer than how my reader interprets the work. Like I said, my goal for most poems in regards to an outsider reading is to rile the desire to participate in another read. There is meaning in the poem, my friend, but in the words of Pessoa (also in my signature) , "most of the meaning we glean is our own" and what the poem means to me personally can never mean what it means for you, the subjective, detached, yet utterly involved reader. I appreciate this exchange we're having; I consider myself too loose and overly embracive in face of vagueness/obscurity, while I get the impression that you're a poet who is more inclined to write to a tee, to outline, to plan and ponder, which is great. Hope I'm not coming off as pretentious or poetically selfish!