In my life, I've seen enormous increase in the consumption of poetry. When I was young, there were virtually no poetry readings.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
On a practical level, poetry isn't something anybody has really made a great living at. I might sell some books and, once in a while, someone might pay to hear me read.
I've been surprised to learn how many people love poetry. It's beautiful to see that people want poetry in their lives.
When I began, poetry was very academic. You published little pamphlets from fancy presses. It was rather... chaste. There wasn't much public reading. Then there was poetry and jazz, which I don't think worked, though I love jazz.
And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.
Poetry had great powers over me from my childhood, and today the poems live in my memory which I read at the age of 7 or 8 years and which drove me to desperate attempts at imitation.
I don't think I've ever read poetry, ever.
I don't know if younger poets read a lot of, you know, the poets - the established poets. There was a lot of pretty boring stuff to sort of put up with and to add to, to make something vital from.
The more I read my poems, the more I find out about them. I still read them with the same passion I felt when I wrote them as a young man.
So few people read poetry. That's sad, isn't it?
I was lucky to have read a lot of poetry when I was younger; it helped me to remember a way to write.