Reflections on Poetry

    I found it interesting trying to explicate a poem by an existentialist thinker like Walt Whitman by utilizing poetic devices. There seems to be so much personal interpretation that happens when each individual reads his poems, that viewing his poetry as a formalist seems pointless. I am a firm believer in the idea that meaning doesn't only come from logic. Meaning can be a product of experience alone.
   In the Zen school of buddhism, the practice of koans is trongly emphasized. Koans tend to be similar to word problems one might find in math, yet they have no logical answer. This might seem silly for some people, but the idea is to seek out meaning in an emotional realm rather than a logical one. In a sense you feel the answer rather than think it.
   This is how I feel about some poetry, and in particular the poem A Noiseless Patient Spider. There is only so much you can do through explication. This poem requires both a logical interpretation as well as an emotional one in order to fully appreciate it.