Grassy,
It would appear from my distribution list for Arrowhead that the majority of
poetry books are bought by poets for themselves and for other poets. Hence
the large volume of poems written about writing poems.
Roger
----- Original Message -----
From: "grasshopper" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 3:27 PM
Subject: Discussion topic? Poems about writing poems.
> I'm surprised, reading various poetry lists, about how many poems are
about
> poetry and writing poems. It leads me to wonder what the expected audience
> of these poems is.
> I suspect the majority of people do not write poems - so why should they
be
> expected to connect to the writing process? Is is not rather solipsistic
to
> expect a general reader to be as fascinated by this subject as an author
is?
> I'll confess my personal feeling about this. I think Art should mainly be
> about life, not about art. Poems about poems can get very incestuous and
> inbred-- frankly I think it's rather an unhealthy trend.
> I've found most people don't respond that readily to poems about poetry,
but
> about things they can relate to more strongly -about living life, rather
> than the process of writing about it.
> Could this be why often people feel alienated from poetry these days--they
> feel much of it is aimed at fellow writers rather than the general public?
> I'd be interested to know what others think.
> Kind regards,
> grasshopper
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