Meaning in poetry

I think poetry is something very personal to the writer and that a poem always has inherent meaning to an author. Meaning to artwork and writing is essential to it’s creation. Even something like an advertisement has meaning; that meaning might be to get the customer to buy the product but it’s still a meaning regardless. I think like art, one cannot truly separate the creator and the creation. Poems become so much more rich when there is context to the author and the kinds of experiences that could influence certain imagery or word choice. I don’t think poetry needs to be extremely direct in it’s structure to be a successful poem but I do think word choice needs to be as direct with an audience as it can be. There are countless ways to express a feeling using simple words. That is not to say that one cannot use a complex word and write a meaningful poem but a poem can lose meaning to a lot of people if they cannot understand half of it. I think ultimately poetry serves to give the reader something whether it ends up being an insight or simply the motivation to look up a new word. It’s when you make your poetry a task for someone that it becomes tedious because you have clearly not chosen the correct words to explain your idea.