Great Regulars: David Orr, that's who--though in

"Beautiful and Pointless," his new guide to modern poetry, the most important thing he reveals about codes is that there aren't any. True, no poem speaks to us as directly as a stop sign or a Star of David. But nobody listens to a Jay-Z song and says, "Hmm, I wonder what he meant by that," and a well-made poem works the same way. Susan Sontag once wrote an essay advocating "an erotics of art," and that's the main point of Orr's passionate, nimble little book: that poetry is for lovers, not cryptologists.

from David Kirby: The New York Times: How to Read Poetry Today

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