I don’t understand a lot of poetry I read.
And I think many times, it’s because meaning is encoded. And decoding doesn’t just happen after one pass of the words.
There’s an intentionality with just about everything in poetry. From specific word choice, to word count per line, to line length, to rhythmic structure, to breaks/punctuation/capitalization, and so on…
In other words: what poetry might be missing in length, it adds in encoded depth.
And to the most careful and keen of readers… that depth may be uncovered and enjoyed in full.
And to those who give the poem a once-over, scratch their head, and simply move on with their day… confusion will be what they’re left full of.
And you know what…?
It feels to me that the same is very much true for life…
P.s. Trying to decode some meaning? You can check out my poems here.