Oct 08 2008
Are you a closet poet?
I’ve come across so many poets who tell me that they have hundreds of poems that they have written yet have never done anything with them. The poems are kept in boxes or folders and left there never to be born much like a bird in a cage never to be set free. The comments I hear are “they are just too personal for me” or “No one would understand them.”
Let’s take a look at each argument. They are just too personal. As writers everything we write has a personal element to it and as poets we express our deepest thoughts and feelings by writing these personal words. I’m not saying you have to dust off those poems and start submitting them for publication but to leave them grow old and unseen to me is a grave mistake. What you have to realize is that because they are so personal and drawn from life experience, by showing them to the world you may just help someone else.
The second argument “No one will understand them. Understanding poetry has nothing to do with trying to figure out what the poet is saying. When reading poetry it is about applying what we are reading to our own lives. How does that particular poem make you feel and what scenarios does it conjure up in your mind? Poems are meant to allow you to think and journey inside yourself. Granted there are poems out there which are created in order to teach and tell stories of history and otherwise but the majority are experiences captured in words and created to be shared and treasured.
I do understand that for the poet, poetry drawn from personal experiences is of a sacred genre all its own. I’ve also been there. However not sharing your gift of words scares me more than opening your heart and allowing people to see inside so that they may be helped in some way by what you have written.
So, dust off the poetry and show it to the world or at least to me.
I’m somewhere in the center. Then again, I write pretty sporadically.
http://waxingpoetically.today.com
http://artfromtheoutskirts.today.com
Everyone is a closet poet. Some of us just have glass closets.
Somehow I don’t have the confidence with “showing” my poetry. I’ve been print published, online published and won competitions so I have put my poetry out there, but most of my poetry is personal not just to me as the poet, but also my husband as most of it is romance related. I guess the fact I’m published means I’m not a closet poet, but I did toy with the idea of creating a chapter book of love poetry - and realized I didn’t want to take something so personal into that kind of publication. The difference between a chap book, and a poem being published on its own? I have no idea! I’m a writer, I have well-nurtured unexplainable eccentricities!
Katie-Anne
Wow, so true. Love this post.
You know “too personal” is the best poetry a writer can write and I think it doesn’t expose as much about the poet as it does about the reader when they connect with it.
Which addresses the argument you mentioned “no one will understand.” It is the reader who adds their meaning to poem.
So weird for you to mention this because I was just looking at some of the quotes I was posting at WritelyApplied and I was worried I was inferring something that the person quoted may not have meant…I wondered if I needed a disclaimer…but like you said, this is what I took from it and it might reach someone else at a totally different level.
Violette
http://writelyapplied.today.com
I am not a closet poet, but would love to see more people enjoying and sharing their poetry. Great post! Therese
Threedegree, love that saying.
Katieanne a chapbook of your romance related poetry would make a great gift for your husband.
thehabe Wouldn’t that be nice?