Can Poetry Matter, A Brief Rebuttal  

Poetry, not unlike all other human endeavors, falls prey to the same historical growth, variation and corrections within the life-cycle of any product or pursuit, eventually relegated to a handful of practitioners and hobbyists. Woodworking, chess, ballet, crochet, (insert your choice of passionate hobby here) while all worthy of seeking perfection and beauty, arguably, survive as a mechanism for individuals to express themselves in an attempt to fully develop their sense of self.

    Poetry in particular has the unique ability to record a life’s work of emotional highs and lows akin to the personal diary.  The poems we craft no longer have to be great gifts from the Gods worthy of study two millennia hence. It has become a private affair: Id and Ego and on occasion, a public reading. Poems and songs by the gobs come and go in and out of our daily lives like food: some meals are memorable, some just sustenance. We need to embrace this without subjecting the act of creation to a higher calling. In time, the world will always be able to determine which artisans were shackled with such ecumenical responsibilities. And it is plausible to suggest that the majority of poets, songwriters, playwrights, musicians, dancers and woodworkers primarily engage in their chosen avocation for hedonistic reasons and obliquely in the quest to have their shared basic assumptions about being alive ratified by a small audience of loved ones, colleagues and scholars wowed by their efforts.

      So why do we still argue for public acknowledgement of our private meanderings? Who cares if the Lowell Daily Sun, New Yorker or USA Today publishes a daily, weekly or bi-annual poem.  Currently, there are thousands of journals that print a broad spectrum of the good, bad and the ugly. Buy one or two. Connect yourself with a community. Stop expecting the guy who trades derivatives to care---he doesn’t. Your poetry is part of a greater journey, not the daily news.