Reading poems now

I've never had an easy time as a reader.

Words have always been hard on me.

As a reader I'm often caught as if in the middle of one of the two methods of treating the body and soul (to paraphrase Plato, paraphrasing Socrates)--that one is directed to producing pleasure, the other to doing good; one following the lower side of my nature, the other fighting against it.

I'm Platonic when I read this way, and just a Greek when I don't.

I started out in poetry.

I soon noticed that a real poem always has lots of white space around it; a poem just comes this way, quite naturally, however small the page and whatever size the type is.

I know now that there's a difference between reading writing and reading poetry. The writer of writing speaks and the writer of poetry is spoken to and then speaks.

What I like most about poetry is the silence.

Silence is what is tired of words and words are what often keeps man from his nature, words being also a kind of conscience that keeps man separate from the animals.