Reinventing Poetry for the General Audience

I have had the fortune of reconnecting with a dear friend over this past week. He was my thesis director in graduate school, and he and I were very close while I was there. I always looked up to him as a writer, and now, fifteen years later, I am looking forward to collaborating with him on some projects. We've had some stimulating conversations about poetry, and I thought that I would share some of those thoughts with you.

Like I've said in past posts, I used to be a poet first and a writer second. Over time, however, I became reticent about writing poetry because of the general lack of interest in it, and the fact that poetry presses were so limiting in what they would accept. Without putting much thought into it, I began to focus my attention elsewhere, and it has not been until these past few weeks that I have started to think more about the genre seriously again. This is mainly due to the fact that I was hired to write a collection of poems for a coffee table book to be published in Europe. The project went very well, and I've received accolades from both the artist who hired me and his publisher. The biggest compliment was the statement that he made: "I can no longer separate the photograph from the poem." The pride I felt when I read his commentary was unbelievable, and it re-ignited that spark inside of me.

Now, I'm looking at publishing a new collection of poetry in my own name. But, like all things I write, I also want to make money with this endeavor. I don't want to just break even. My friend and I discussed this, and we have determined what the current problem is with poetry today.

The simple perspective would place the downward spiral of poetry on the audience. I used to feel this way too. I thought that the average American would not want to purchase a chap book of poetry. However, after much thought, I have come to the conclusion that this is not the case. There is a large reading population, and a poetry collection done in the right way would sell. I think you have to be creative. Perhaps sell it as a coffee table book or even make it a collection of short stories and poetry, but there are ways of making it work.

The problem that we see with poetry is that the audience has been taken out of the equation. Since the 1960s, for whatever reason, poetry has gone astray in two ways. First, it has been taken hostage by the academia. Secondly, it has been used as a sounding board for controversial ideas.

Academia has a belief that poetry is an art that only the few can appreciate. And when that really took root, many of the smaller poetry presses either went out of business or focused their printing towards the university setting. Poets published were either MFAs, students in creative writing programs, or PhDs. They wrote in a very high language that took the average reader out of the mix, and they kept it to themselves. Indeed, most poetry journals today are supported by members of these elite organizations; therefore, few poems have made it to the popular readership.

In addition, many of the poems out there were written with a very specific in-your-face message. Politics became the poet's message, and everything from feminist philosophy to socialism to anything in between has become the overriding purpose for the poem. Not only does this turn off many readers, but it also goes over the head of many readers who are not privy to the subject material being written about. It is no wonder that the average reader shuns poetry.

To me, poetry is an art that should be enjoyed by all. I don't think that it should be void of a message, but I think its main purpose should be rhetorical, meaning that it should take something of everyday value and shed light on a deeper meaning that everyone can appreciate. It should make you think. Poetry should be beautiful, descriptive, and it should create an emotion. Moreover, it should be a snapshot into the mind of the poet as a reaction to things seen and experienced.

Robert Frost is the person who comes to mind. He took everyday life observances and wrote about them. Each poem had a deeper meaning, but it was a meaning that everyone could understand and interpret. He wrote for the masses, and he was one of the last poets to do just that. He despised elitist mentality, and he often wrote against it. Oddly enough, he was one of the last poets who truly had success with the popular press. And he was successful, not because he was a rhymer with no content. He wrote deep poetry -- beautiful poetry -- and that is what we need once again on the shelves of our favorite bookstores.

I look towards Frost as the answer to today's poetry problem. I think that it can be brought back to success in the public's mind, and I think that taking his model would work. You see, there is a much larger audience for poetry out there, but the problem is reaching them with the product that they want to read. It is my goal to try to make that happen, and I am happy to find someone whom I respect with a like-mind in this matter.