You had me at "Narnia" - so to say that I loved this story is not rooted in bias just because you included one of my poems in it!

I often tell people that I have a love-hate relationship with poetry, including my own. Now and then, I'm pleasantly surprised. Other times, like that time I read a sing-songy, superficial verse about the murder of a young child, I want to hold my nose and run the opposite direction.

Like you, I don't think that poetry should be unfathomable. It should be composed of words that dance, layered in language that's open to the reader's own interpretations (no need to psychoanalyze the poet, posthumously), and it should flow naturally from the tongue when read aloud.

I finally began to understand what makes poetry work when I began to understand the appeal of modern, abstract, and surreal art. I grew up loving only the hyper-realists, like Jacque Louis David. Then two artist friends helped to make other art forms feel more accessible (I still roll my eyes at Jo Baer's work, or Duchamp and his "Fountain", but have a greater appreciation, now, for art that reaches in and touches something in the viewer that cannot be put into words - that it's not about the artist and the artist's own vision, but a visual conversation.)

Thank you for giving this to Reading Rhombus. It's lovely.