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Poetry People - Conversation on Poets
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Jen,
I disagree. I'm going to make a sweeping assertion, which I'm sure will stir up more dust than a campaign speech:
Good poets never write for an audience. They write for themselves.
Obviously, any writer must be aware of his/her audience; otherwise, effective communication would be impossible. They therefore write TO an audience. But a poet who writes for an audience instead of for him-/herself has a special title. It's "hack". Good poets connect their unconscious with their conscious simultaneously, and that requires an immense amount of self-reflection, rather than its opposite, marketing.
Alcuin
I disagree. I'm going to make a sweeping assertion, which I'm sure will stir up more dust than a campaign speech:
Good poets never write for an audience. They write for themselves.
Obviously, any writer must be aware of his/her audience; otherwise, effective communication would be impossible. They therefore write TO an audience. But a poet who writes for an audience instead of for him-/herself has a special title. It's "hack". Good poets connect their unconscious with their conscious simultaneously, and that requires an immense amount of self-reflection, rather than its opposite, marketing.
Alcuin
by Alcuin of York on May 31 2007