and LILY!! you certainly did NOT make an ass of yourself. did the only thing you could... perceive from your OWN skull.

inmate020882

This is interesting. I think as we get to know each other better, we start learning about each other’s approaches to art and specifically poetry. And maybe about our personal sides as well. A few posts down, Buck mentions narcissism, and maybe that's what I don't have enough of! (Even though obviously I had some form of it otherwise I might not have come up with an interpretation at all.)

What I have lately noticed about myself is that if I read a poem which gives unlimited freedom for interpretation I tend not to feel the poem, mainly because I am too concerned with trying to understand its message, and subsequently neglect to look at its artistic expression. But that seems to closely tie in with my philosophy about art. To me art should have a message, otherwise, why say anything? Okay that's not necessarily true, and a little generalized, because I believe in art as pure form of beauty as well, but to me the most powerful art is like a protest (for lack of a better word, but I am not implying "angry art" here). I like art to speak to me about something outside of me, from some other perspective from my own. I like to be thrown into an experience and view that I never considered. I try to avoid interpreting as much as possible because that only leaves room for me.

Just to clarify, my philosophy isn’t right or superior to any other, it is just one of many with which one can approach art (obviously).

"I just think its a futile pursuit, especially when interpreting a piece through your own perspective and faculties of perception is equally valid. "

I agree with you. But too often it is unclear whether the artist truly intended for the piece to be interpreted freely by its readers/viewers or whether that became a convenient excuse. I have read enough of your poems that I know the latter would never apply to you, so it is my own resistance/prejudice that I have to overcome to let myself enjoy poetry just as it written, sometimes without meaning other than the one perceived by me. Thank you for encouraging this side of me. Everyone involved here gives me the greatest of all gifts, the opportunity to learn, not only about poetry but also about myself.

As for the central point here, there is none - yet. Or is there? But we are working on a vision (unless I just erased myself from that equation by my above statements). We all seem to critique from our gut and experience and sometimes less stable brains and then set each other straight. (Thank you all.) Of course, just like you I find it is entirely "possible that i have absolutely no idea what i'm talking about and i'm throwing the whole tribe off track with nonsensical bullshit."