Serious question: Why do some poems only make sense after midnight?

I was judging a local poetry contest and one entry was so abstract I nearly dismissed it. Later, I read it aloud to my cat and the rhythm suddenly revealed it was about traffic jams. Does poetry often need a weird context to be understood?

3 comments

3 Comments

jade_mason9813h ago

My friend finally understood a cryptic poem during a 3 a.m. laundry cycle, weird how that works.

adams.luna49m ago

Back in grad school, I decoded Eliot's 'Wasteland' during a 4 a.m. coffee run. The brain makes weird leaps when you're half-awake and engaged in simple tasks, @jade_mason98.

moore.stella3h ago

Ugh jade_mason98, maybe your friend was just sleep deprived. It's just a laundry epiphany, not that deep.