I will teach you that it’s not enough to be infatuated with the word. You are in a textual relationship with language. It’s not just about you. You have to be sensitive to the needs of the word — then maybe it will receive you. Otherwise you are doomed to its hardened exterior. The word will not open, the word will not enter you. This is the most common form of textual difficulty. Perhaps you are rushing the language. You may have to take your time with the poem. Or maybe you’re taking too much time. You have to be like radar to the moods, textures, and shifts of the lingo. And don’t get possessive. When you’re “with” the word, you’re with every word that word has ever been with. Accept it. All words are contextual free spirits. Practise on the smaller forms at first — haiku, aphorisms. It will seem impossible that one day something the size of The Iliad could enter you, but if you are patient — if you hold the words in your mind — if you let the word touch you — energy will enter. But you must also enter the energy. Hold the word as the word holds you. You must be taken. If you just take what you want from the poem then you leave unresolved charges simmering in it. This is how textual difficulties start. It is necessary to attend to the urges of the poem and to do this you must be patient and unctuous. You must focus and receive and let go entirely into the movement and rhythms of the poem. The key is mutuality. To get to where nothing comes between you and the language. To ride naked text, tissue to tissue. Wedged into a book like there is no exit. Full textual engagement will often, and some say should always, lead to those epiphany moments when insight like white light shoots up the being with a burst of raw alphabation. But remember, as important as it is that the poem satisfy you, this will only happen when you satisfy the poem. Only then will it fill you with the glories of literature. Only then will you be on your way again to a full and happy text life.
Of course not all your textual forays need be bound by such sweaty and arduous parameters. The lure of easy and casual text is everywhere. We’ve all experienced text in phone booths and washroom stalls, text up against the wall, or on public transit. You can’t get away from text and you don’t want to. Some people claim too much text can make you go blind, but the truth is text is legal and safe. In fact people have sacrificed their lives and freedoms for your right to experience almost any kind of text when and where you like. In general though it is good to give your words a periodic check-up. Let us compare dictionaries on a regular basis. Let us verify the language. Purify the word. Remember to exchange armadas. To do time in one another’s subs. Whether you absorb the word or the word absorbs you, every time you speak a camel treads the needle eye. This is the true traverse of the double-humped dialectic. This is true textual intercourse. I give you my word.