a_thought u24 which is more important, the poem or what it describes? 040720 ... puredream neither, it is the life behind the poem, the words and the meaning... the experiences... 040720 ... pete the 'reader reaction' and the emotions, the unconsious rhythm that is only discovered upon reading it aloud, the meaning hidden that if you aren't open to it, subconsiously, you miss it... 040720 ... anne-girl if a poem is not read, does it have meaning? 050729 ... pete it has the meaning written into it, though none to be taken from it 050729 ... daf The poem User24. It is the poem. A moment much like the one it expresses will happen a million times. But once it is captured in the poem, it no longer has to be within the realm of one's own experience...to be experienced. And so I can now hold this fragile goddess in my own heart without ever having had to cross her path. Without ever having to avail myself of the opportunities that may never come my way. I have been given a gift in this piece of literature. And whether it is a poem which conveys the way things looked, or the way people felt..it doesn't matter. The poem can give it a million times over a million times to a million different people in a million different ways. It is the communication of a singular experience from one soul to another in order that it might be transformed and, in a way, experienced again. 050729 ... daf However..if the question you're really asking is "which could we do without?" Then I'd have to say that the moment itself is more important. Without it..there would be no poem. 050729 ... REAListic optimIST art_is_a_verb imho, it is the writing of the poem itself which is important. not the poem, nor the meaning another might take from it. apart from that, poetry_as_commodity has value, too, but it pales in comparison to the art_process. 050730 ... "A" Man Think one today! 071214 what's it to you? who go blather from