it turns out when you speak to a professional about their job, you learn something.
the last two comments (one by adriana and one by prgrmr42) are in and of themselves poetic and isn’t that the beauty of the conversation? of poetry? it speaks to us in “hints, suggestions, implications” not to mention imagery, emotions, and experiences.
i think this is what i’ve been doing “wrong” all these years. i’ve been reading poems too literally. i’ve really only studied poetry when in school, so i suppose my pavlovian response is to read to come up with an answer that’s acceptable by the teacher instead of feeling the words, drinking them in, and repeating them to see how i perceive the poem. no one else, just me. me and the words.
now that’s a duet i can get behind.
and now that i’ve been freshly enlightened, i need me some poetry to read! suggestions welcome.
Abigail Mumford 
This makes me think I need to read more poetry. Do naughty limericks count?
of course they count! actually, i’ve heard they count double when written by you and TG. :)
I think for me the revelation came one summer when I was living by myself in an apartment that had poetry magnets on the fridge. I spent a lot of time putting random words together that had no business being together. It was a little bit like playing god, with words :)
i can’t very well go back in time to read your fridge poetry, now can i? HOW ABOUT SOME SUGGESTIONS of what to read, oh wise one!!!!?!?
OK OK! Let’s discuss. I’m sure something can be arranged :)
Good answer, my friend. Perhaps a discussion avec vino is in order. And perhaps I need to work on my grasp of foreign languages while I’m at it…