Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In the United States, in poetry workshops, it's now quite a thing to make graduate students learn poems by heart.
Poetry is something that happens in universities, in creative writing programs or in English departments.
And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so.
Most people who write and publish poetry teach or do something else.
Americans have been tremendously fortunate in poetry, regarding both the quantity and quality of poetry produced. Unfortunately, it remains in schools and universities; it is not widely distributed.
From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus they figure into good American poetry, whether the poet is aware of what he is doing or not.
I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.
When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous.
I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that.
I'd say people do need some help with poetry because I think poetry just helps takes us to places that Americans aren't always accustomed to going.