Why Write Poetry?

Why write poetry? Poetry don't sell, nobody reads them.
Don't bet on that, but that's not the point.
People write poetry because they love to. Just like you love a beer.

An author, i think it was Stephen King,
once said that you are like an opened carton of milk in the fridge.
You take on whatever flavour is beside you.
But like he said, an author shouldn't just be that carton of milk.
Yes, you absorb the flavours, it gives you different tastes,
but you have to try to find your own voice.

My nephew once asked me about the secret of good writing.
I told him there's really no secret.
He looked surprised when i told him to read. And write. Lots of it.
True, the two go hand in hand.
It's like a guy wanting to win a marathon
but having no time to do practice runs.
So go read anything you can lay your hands on,
your thick reference books, the great SF masters,
the Nobel laureates, pulp fiction, manga,
your child's bedtime story books,the papers.

Let me quote from an excellent essay by the Beat poet, Lenore Kendel.

"poetry is never compromise"

Poetry is never compromise. It is the manisfestation /
translation of a vision, an illumination, an experience
If you compromise your vision you become a blind prophet.
..........
Those who read poetry do so for pleasure, for insight,
sometimes for counsel. The least they can expect is
that the poet who shares his visions and experiences
with them do so with no hypocrisy. To compromise
poetry through fear is to atrophy the psyche.
To compromise poetry through expediency
is the soft, small murder of the soul...

Lenore Kendel , 1967, whereabouts unknown.
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I write poetry simply because I love to.