Emery enters the debate about popularising poetry and the need to keep journals such as Five Bells open to 'all shades of opinion and skill'. He concludes on a personal note, stating 'I like poetry that I have to read more than once, poetry that reveals other possibilities on each subsequent reading but I have to be encouraged to read that poem a second time by something on the surface, maybe tone, mabye imagery, maybe music, maybe ideas, which attracts me and, perhaps, puzzles me.'