Art as a Cultural Sytem

One of the lines that struck me the most in this article was " ... a poem must not mean, but be..." This line struck me for many reasons, but the most predominant one being that as a poet myself I understand how, or what, it is to have someone read your writing and try to find a meaning behind it.
Though there may be a meaning or some kind of reasoning behind a work of art, does not mean that it is meant to be found, and in that case, even looked for.
This also speaks volumes for human nature and our constant need to break everything down into simple terms.
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." How many times have you (or someone around you) spoken just because you (or they) wanted to fill the silence? I mean that in the sense where you kind of ask yourself what was the point of what he/she just said? The article does bring about the question of why people criticize or even try to understand art.

Most, if not all, of the time when people verbally respond to any form of art it is because it brings about an extreme emotion... usually anger or some sort of inner conflict, whether it pertains to one's morals, religious beliefs, innate tendencies, or ethics. And a lot of the time art which does not disturb the observer goes unnoticed. "... all those that bite or sting are carefully classified, but butterflies form one huge class regardless of size or color."

For example; if I were to write two different poems:
1. In every poet
there is a virgin
waiting to be molested
& touched
in ways on the devil could desire

2. With the touch of a second
we'll fly into this seedless land
& rid these girls in white dresses
of raging love

Which of the two is more likely to be talked about? The one with 'bite', no?
Is it just human nature to disassemble everything? To only respond or think critically when provoked? It does seem only natural to only think deeply about things you find interesting or which stimulate you, but there are so many more things in the world that one will discover only be looking deeper, and a lot of those things are not going to have big flashing lights around them.

What I got from the overall article was that we, as humans, have the tendency to break things down until we feel they are simple. We do not want to feel over powered by anything or anyone, much less a piece of art or an artist.

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