Poetry

I am almost 100% the person who gets shivers down their back at the thought of reading poetry, to be honest I'm not really sure why as i love reading and have a wide range of interest's in the type of literature i do read. Since i was young and was given poetry to read in school i always had the tendency to lose patients with it, looking for the hidden meanings, am i interrupting this as the author intended? Why am i not getting this?
I think what has always bothered me the most is the vagueness to it all, why not just say what you mean ? I know, i know that's not the point and i am going to try my hardest this week to focus on these poems and hopefully with the help of all you guys the concept may finally click in this head of mine.
My daughters are big fans of Shel Silverstein, i used to read the poems to them when they were small and they giggled at most of them, i find it amazing that he can connect so well to children through his poems maybe because kids have no preconceived notations on poetry at that age.One poem i do "get" so to speak and i am sure it is just because this is an area of interest i will be studying is a poem by Emily Dickinson called "One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted", i have posted it below but this deals with the hidden fascination that everyone has about the socially unacceptable(murder & death), in our minds we have all contemplated and imagined the unimaginable, but in this poem Dickinson is able to express in words what most people could never say out load.

 "One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted"

One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted-
One need not be a House-
The Brain has Corridors-surpassing
Material Place-Far safer, of a Midnight Meeting
External Ghost
Than its interior Confronting-
That Cooler Host.Far safer, through an Abbey gallop,
The Stones a'chase-
Than Unarmed, one's a'self encounter-
In lonesome Place-Ourself behind ourself, concealed-
Should startle most-
Assassin hid in our Apartment
Be Horror's least.The Body-borrows a Revolver-
He bolts the Door-
O'erlooking a superior spectre-
Or More-



But here is my daughters favorite poem by Shel Silverstein, after reading this may be you will understand why they giggle all the time at them :)

Standing Is Stupid by Shel Silverstein
Standing is stupid,
Crawling's a curse,
Skipping is silly,
Walking is worse.
Hopping is hopeless,
Jumping's a chore,
Sitting is senseless,
Leaning's a bore.
Running's ridiculous,
Jogging's insane-
Guess I'll go upstairs and
Lie down again.

Here's a link to more of his poems, great fun if you have kids or are a big kid at heart

.shelsilverstein poems