Well, do you? Why is this such a difficult question to answer, without feeling/seeming like an asshole? It’s not like we asked you if you like chicken livers or something (yum). And yet, people on the street get more startled by this question than, “Are you saved?” Nothing like either of these questions to ruin a long bus ride. For the mindful individual, confronting the notion of poetry is like swallowing a ball of red-hot iron. You can’t spit it out. And you can’t swallow it. Like Coleridge’s Mariner, you may find yourself in the grip of something you don’t know. And yet you do it. It’s a simple question really: Do you like poetry?
I happen to love poetry…I love to write poetry as well. It’s how I express myself…It may not be in any type of format that everyone else writes in but hey that’s ok cause it fits me…You are indeed correct it’s hard to ask someone if they like poetry cause most of them look at you like your crazy when you mention the word poetry…
Like poetry? Chris I LOVE poetry, but I write it.
It can be a difficult mistress, and I must say more bad poetry is written than good. Not of course that I judge anyone’s work, and mine is even somewhat suspect, but I think most people are exposed to poetry not through Tennyson and Yeats, but by being harangued by that emo guy in the bar. Poetry is easy to do, hard to do well.
I often tell myself, “you will never have an audience..” over and over.
create to create I say, and god help the hindmost.
Best,
TBS