Some of my favourite poems are easy to understand- not because the poet is incapable or unintelligent, but because the accesibility and straight-forwardness of the writing reflects the message of the poem better than flowery words and metaphor could do. I'm not sure I've explained this very well, but therein lies the problem ha ha.

Poems such as "To Be of Use" by Marge Piercy, "From Blossoms" by Li-Young Lee, and "Thank You For Saying Thank You" by Charles Bernstein are the most important and most striking poems to me. Last night I re-read "To Be of Use" for the umpteenth time, thinking about my future and things of that sort. I've long been frustrated with myself for feeling like I had to write poems that were complex and veiled in metaphor. Reading Piercy's poem, I realized that the poems I loved were the kind that came naturally to me, or rather, the kind that I connected with. And isn't that the point of poetry anyway: connection?