What is the meaning of that poem?

I am a poet, and that much I can say without the uncertainty I allude to in my public bio sections that read “SysAdmin, Programming Language Tourist, and Petty Dabbler of the Written Word”, or my first post here.

My work as a poet or a writer is mainly to write. But, I write mainly for the sheer joy of reading it back in every way I can. Let me explain that a little bit.

Once I have something written and shared, it is yours to read, mine too. When you read it, if you think what I wrote is profoundly about a fat lady dancing like an angel on a tightrope over the Grand Canyon while wearing a pygmy hippopotamus as her headwear, it is probably about that.

In short, I do not think poetry has an intrinsic nature as poetry without the reader. At least, this is what I currently believe. Like many before me, I also have thought long and often enough about that. And, I have yet to convince myself that a poem has a “poetic nature” sans someone to read or experience it. Therefore, I like to consider the reader part of the poetry work.

So, you do not have to ask me what any of my poems mean. There might have been a particular way or many ways I read it. Those may or may not have been what I thought about while writing it. It could be metapoetry, antidisestablishmentarianism, or it could be about love, political oppression, or other things. But let me not hold you back from experiencing it your way.

Let me not hold you from reading the way you could or want. You may find meaning, unmeaning, non-meaning, or simply nothing. Would it not be great to let it be, whatever it will be, every time you read it?