What do you have to say to those who diss poetry?

Something that just happend that got me upset and I'm really curious about this. I've heard a lot of shit about poets that's wrong. All rants, raves, what have you are allowed. What would you say to the following comments: Poetry sucks, Poetry is for pussies, there is nothing special about poetry, you might want to change because your writing sucks....so on and so forth I have heard that gets said to people. How do you feel about this stuff? I encourage all you poets to vent if you need to! What have you heard?

 

i enjoy writing very much, especially poetry.
when, or if i hear shit like that, i assess the person saying it.
someone saying something like that is probly an incompetent person.
and if they are, what they say really means nothing to me.
no literate, intellectual person could argue that poetry "sucks" or is for "pussies".

 

I believe poetry is a beautiful art
To put down on paper, what you feel in your heart
If you think that in means, that your stupid or weak
Then ide say your quite ignorant, and your mind is quite bleak
An ancient art, like painting or song
and it will remain in our world for just as long
anyone is entitled, to opinion, free thought
but when you hate expression, theres something you need to be taught

 

i've never really been one to care much about what people have to say to me or what people think about me.
i write because i need to. It's a form of therapy for me. I don't like talking about my problems with people so I write about them. I'm a very awkward person half of the time and don't know how to say things so I write them down. Honestly, it wasn't until recently that I started sharing my writing with others (as you can see there is a sudden burst of my writings on here)

to people that don't like poetry. fine whatever. it's not for everyone. It takes a certain kind of person, a special person to understand and see the meaning and feeling behind poetry.

to me reading someone else's poetry is pretty much taking on the burden of their problems and their feelings and it takes a strong person to do that.
so if you don't like poetry it's probably because you can't understand it, handle it, or handle the burden of sharing with someone and getting to know and understand someone

 

not too much as i don't half the time get what its getting at myself. emotions are a thing that exists, but not where i prefer to live, nor trust as far as i can throw.

9/10ths of poetry is no better nor worse then 9/10ths of anything else. sturgeon's first law applies neither more nor less. as does themnax's corrilary about the other 1/10th trying to make up for it. and often doing so and more.

let's face it; a lot of it IS boring. just like mainstream prose.

but it doesn't have to be. and there are plenty of examples that arn't.

a lot of the fault comes from the common mistaken assumption that pushing some envilope or another somehow automatically makes anything worthwhile. to the contrary, it neather contributes nor inhibits in and of itself. though it may draw curiousity at first.

depends on how you feel about humans i guess. 9/10ths of the time, i find them boring too. i've never really gotten into anything that didn't involve my own creating or exploring in it. and i can't claim to understand poetry well enough even to know with any degree of certainty if something i've done is or isn't.

sometimes there's an intuitive groove i fall into, and what comes out, i've been told, once or twice anyway, that they thought it was poetry. but i can't say as its ever anything, you know other then rhyming dogaril, that i know anywhere near enough to do intentionally.

so to judge someone else's, all i can say is whether or not it seems to be about something that interests me. which poetry often isn't, and illustration more often is, then anything art criticism calls art.

=^^=
.../\...

 

I enjoyed hearing what you guys/ladies had to say about this. I agree with you all. Some very strong points, very strong. Made me feel a bit better.

 

hated it at school, hated it all my life. except for pam eyres...then one day i dont know...still, i'm shit at it, but i enjoy the magical qualities of the use of words now, the way they taste, the way feelings can portray a scene. from haiku to prose...

 

One thing I find a bit funny is when people criticize poetry... like, you should've said it this way, or added that, or changed it like so. To truly write poetry is to catch a wave.... a wave of emotion, a wave of spirit, and riding that wave, and then letting it spill out into words. You don't really construct poetry mentally. It's not a mental thing. Sometimes you may go back and while in tune with the feeling, alter something. But it's still the feeling that drives that alteration, not a mental analysis. People who read poetry with their intellectual brain will never get it, because the intellect disects and analyzes, separates into little bits, in which the meaning gets lost. Poetry is stepping back and taking in the whole of it... a mood, a tone, a sensation, a feeling. It's a glimpse into something vulnerable...

Those that can't or don't see beauty in it, I just let them be. So what? What's there to argue about? We can't make someone see something through arguing or complaining. Poetry won't be appreciated by everyone. And even within the spance of poetry there are many variations. It's a creation and it may speak to some but not to all. Creation is fulfilling just in the act of it. It really doesn't matter the outcome or what is said about it afterward. The birthing is complete, and that brings satisfaction in itself.

 

I really liked what you had to say here. Very true my friend, very true.