I went to hear Montana's Poe Laureate Sheryl Noethe talk and read poems tonight at the Museum of the Rockies.  I don't really know much about poetry, the only poet I've read a lot is Baudelaire.  Noethe's poetry is "free verse" I believe they call it and is entertaining while she reads it aloud.  She says poetry is meant to be read aloud and I agree.  She said something though that quite frankly pissed me off, well two things.  She said she doesn't memorize anything and why when poetry is to be read aloud.  Ancient Greek used to memorize all of Homer and thought it was only a challenge to recite it backwards.  The few things I've put to memory have been worth all the time in the world putting the words into my head.
The kicker though was that if a poem is read aloud or read by an individual and does not get it the first time, then the author of the poem is a bad poet.  I'm rather curious what Dr. Sexon and everyone else in the class thinks about this.  But talk about dumbing the whole fucking populace down to a level or rather dumb playing field.  Every reader brings something different to the table when reading a text, but to all get it the first time seem a little...communistic in a George Bush's perception.
I've read a fair amount of Marx and Marxism does not call for a bunch of sheep marching in a herd saying, "I fucking get it."
Again I don't know much about poetry, but I know a little about literature and if everyone got "it" then there would only be tabula rasa and no point to read.