Poetry

All writing is meant to be clear, to convey a straightforward meaning, idea, situation, or story to the reader... except for poetry. Good poetry is accessible enough, but still a locked box of importance. Every word means only what the other words let it until you're overwhelmed with a general impression of what the poem means and only then can you apply that impression back to the poem to unlock the other meanings behind the coy words. You end up venturing into your own mind and the intent and nonintent of the poet, to the complex Freudian realm of suggestion and association. Most poetry is bullshit because it does not-cannot successfully ride that line of teasingly accessible with a world of depth below. Too many poems are locked away from inherent meaning. This is the damage of academia. While others yet are only obvious, saying just what they mean. I haven't thought about or written poetry in 4 years because the whole world of it is a mess, stuck in ancient tropes and pretension. But all that time I've been wondering, what is the future of poetry? What place does poetry have in the digital world? Not just as an archaic artifact, but as something that lives and breathes the modern experience.

Today I saw a bumper sticker that said, "Abolish Corporate Personhood" and I felt two things.
1. I wonder how many people who read that bumper sticker understand what it means
2. The person driving this Jeep Cherokee understands and that represents a lot.
The interesting thing about the global enlightenment is that we have to have a deeper understanding than we've ever had as a species before. It's difficult because we have to stop letting other people tell us what to think. We have to learn about all the systems of the world on a global scale and understand how they're corrupt. It's a big task for any one person, let alone a community. But as more people catch on to the lies and manipulation that have led them to think in the ways that they think, the more communities will form.
I'm arguing that this difficulty is essential for our enlightenment. We couldn't become enlightened without gaining these extra skills and enduring the difficulties and challenges presented to us.