Here’s a poem that is difficult to decipher but might be worth the effort. Many poems seem to make no sense when read for the first time so the reader might decide to just move on to something else that has more clarity. The difficulty is in deciding which ones are worth the effort and which ones are not…it’s really just a matter of personal preference. Sometimes on the first reading of a poem I am completely in the dark as to what the poet is trying to say but there might be something that piques my interest, a phrase or image I want to understand so I will read the poem and think about it, maybe go in search of clues by looking up words I don’t know or even looking for other peoples’ opinions. The internet is a great tool for that. That effort to understand is the key element in the quest for a good life. The more I understand the better my life will be…maybe not materially but intellectually, emotionally, spiritually…what ever you want to call it. Since I have a keen interest in poetry it is one of tools I use to help me make sense of the world. I think art in general serves that function. There are so many tools at our disposal…family, hobbies, jobs, pets, politics are some the more common ones, the ones we share with the most people but there are others that we may not share so publicly such as sex, our fantasies, our deepest feelings/desires…. Here again it is a matter of personal preference. Anyway, this poem is one I am going to think about and since one of the reasons I am on WordPress is to share interests with others I am posting this for your consideration…

Constancy by Joseph Brodsky : The Poetry Foundation.