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i was just wasting time, looking on the lj popular interests page. in case you've never found this particular page, it lists interests that lj users have in common, and it shows how many people have an interest in each thing. so up near the very top, we have both writing, with a total of 50,431 people listing this as an interest, and poetry, with 30,796 people interested. just for comparison's sake, only 2863 people list jesus as an interest.
to me, this indicates that there's thousands of would-be poets with livejournals. while this is a good thing for the poetry world in general, because hopefully these people are reading modern poetry, it's also kind of weird. how many people are posting their woeful lyrics about love? how many such things get posted every day? i consider myself to be serious about writing, and pretty good for a 22-year-old poet. while no magazines or journals have agreed with my opinion yet, a few different universities have, and that's pretty encouraging. so i guess i tend to get a little snotty about poetry in general (that's my disclaimer for this entire post, btw). i think this is due in part to my former teacher (we'll just call him gary), who holds a rather low opinion of things like "chicken soup for (someone's) soul" and writers like susan polis shultz (who writes gooey greeting-card-type verse). ms. polis shultz probably has more money than i'll ever have, but i kind of feel justified in thinking i'm a better writer than she is because her stuff is just so trite. and i guess thinking about all the susan polis shultzes of the world, and all the people who love her kind of writing, i just wonder.
i mean, i wrote that weepy vague sort of stuff in high school (when i guess everyone does), but i went out and read a lot and learned how to do it better. it took a long time to get from there to here, and it's going to take a long time before i have any chance of selling a book to someone other than my mom. and i wonder how many people there are out there who don't read modern poetry, have never taken a workshop in their life, but who still think their poems are really good. in short four-line stanzas with each line ending in a comma whether one is necessary or not, and talking abstractly about "love" and "pain". staind always comes to mind at moments like this ("and i fee-eel... all this pa-ain..."). if you like them, sorry, but their lyrics suck goat balls.
i'm not trying to be mean. people who are just looking for an outlet, good for you, let your emotions out on the page. journaling is wonderful and can help you figure out lots of things and it feels really good. writing is an awesome hobby and lots of people do it.
but people who write staind poetry and who go on about being a "writer" get on my nerves a bit. it's completely harmless, but i want say, hey, what have you read? william carlos williams? billy collins, our current poet laureate? e e cummings even? how about the oprah books? then go spend a year in the library and then tell me what a writer you are. and i feel really really mean for having that attitude, because there's nothing wrong with being ignorant/innocent of modern poetics and still calling yourself a writer. there's no harm in it and if it makes people feel better about themselves, more power to them. i guess i'm just sort of put off, because i didn't feel i had the right to identify myself as a "poet" till recently - being in a nationally recognized MFA program affirmed it for me, like now it's "okay" for me to say i'm a poet because next year i'll have a terminal degree in the art of poetry writing. and it took a hell of a lot of work to get here, and i feel like i'll never be a real poet, you know? just a girl who writes poems, which isn't the same thing. so clueless people calling themselves writers makes me laugh. maybe you've got talent, but you ain't no writer yet.
i guess it makes me want to teach workshops. because this is one thing i really do know about, and so many people clearly have something to say, you know? i would be tactful if i taught workshops, i would be a good workshop teacher. and i had really good workshop teachers when i was younger, and it really shaped me. or else i would've been a math major, and god knows how that would've turned out.
to me, this indicates that there's thousands of would-be poets with livejournals. while this is a good thing for the poetry world in general, because hopefully these people are reading modern poetry, it's also kind of weird. how many people are posting their woeful lyrics about love? how many such things get posted every day? i consider myself to be serious about writing, and pretty good for a 22-year-old poet. while no magazines or journals have agreed with my opinion yet, a few different universities have, and that's pretty encouraging. so i guess i tend to get a little snotty about poetry in general (that's my disclaimer for this entire post, btw). i think this is due in part to my former teacher (we'll just call him gary), who holds a rather low opinion of things like "chicken soup for (someone's) soul" and writers like susan polis shultz (who writes gooey greeting-card-type verse). ms. polis shultz probably has more money than i'll ever have, but i kind of feel justified in thinking i'm a better writer than she is because her stuff is just so trite. and i guess thinking about all the susan polis shultzes of the world, and all the people who love her kind of writing, i just wonder.
i mean, i wrote that weepy vague sort of stuff in high school (when i guess everyone does), but i went out and read a lot and learned how to do it better. it took a long time to get from there to here, and it's going to take a long time before i have any chance of selling a book to someone other than my mom. and i wonder how many people there are out there who don't read modern poetry, have never taken a workshop in their life, but who still think their poems are really good. in short four-line stanzas with each line ending in a comma whether one is necessary or not, and talking abstractly about "love" and "pain". staind always comes to mind at moments like this ("and i fee-eel... all this pa-ain..."). if you like them, sorry, but their lyrics suck goat balls.
i'm not trying to be mean. people who are just looking for an outlet, good for you, let your emotions out on the page. journaling is wonderful and can help you figure out lots of things and it feels really good. writing is an awesome hobby and lots of people do it.
but people who write staind poetry and who go on about being a "writer" get on my nerves a bit. it's completely harmless, but i want say, hey, what have you read? william carlos williams? billy collins, our current poet laureate? e e cummings even? how about the oprah books? then go spend a year in the library and then tell me what a writer you are. and i feel really really mean for having that attitude, because there's nothing wrong with being ignorant/innocent of modern poetics and still calling yourself a writer. there's no harm in it and if it makes people feel better about themselves, more power to them. i guess i'm just sort of put off, because i didn't feel i had the right to identify myself as a "poet" till recently - being in a nationally recognized MFA program affirmed it for me, like now it's "okay" for me to say i'm a poet because next year i'll have a terminal degree in the art of poetry writing. and it took a hell of a lot of work to get here, and i feel like i'll never be a real poet, you know? just a girl who writes poems, which isn't the same thing. so clueless people calling themselves writers makes me laugh. maybe you've got talent, but you ain't no writer yet.
i guess it makes me want to teach workshops. because this is one thing i really do know about, and so many people clearly have something to say, you know? i would be tactful if i taught workshops, i would be a good workshop teacher. and i had really good workshop teachers when i was younger, and it really shaped me. or else i would've been a math major, and god knows how that would've turned out.
