This is a hard one, &, as Jon & others have shown, it's different for
each of us. I often like to deal with poems that seem (at first)
in-accessible, if I already trust the writer (for many different
reasons; I will try poems that don't at first feel all that accessible
if they have been recommended by someone I trust). But, as the various
remarks so far suggest, what 'we' mean by 'accessible' is not all that
clear. I don't really care about 'meaning' as such, & certainly what
attracts me to poetry first are other aspects, music, rhythm, language
play, all that stuff (which may be what catches your next door
neighbour, too, Jill). But there are poems I will read that lack many
of those things. I'll read a lot I don't even like that much -- the
first time. The test, then, becomes what will I go back to, with love,
delight, etc....
(But then I review a lot, which takes away some of my 'choice'....)
And there is that difficult test, that sometimes something not liked
all that much at first becomes beloved as one tests oneself against it.
Perhaps certain poems test us more than we test them...
Doug
Douglas Barbour
11655 - 72 Avenue NW
Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
(780) 436 3320
Listen. If I have known beauty
let’s say I came to it
asking
Phyllis Webb
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