what is the point of writing poetry?

[Todd]

The question I'm asking is what is the point of writing poetry. What does poetry do for the world? The people that tell me to stop writing poetry don't read poetry, and tell me that poetry serves no purpose.

I'm sure you're not into all the crap they're into either. I don't need shopping malls, NFL football, or Celine Dion...but I'm sure there are a lot of people who like each of those things. If it means something to you you keep doing it. Living for other people's acceptance never works out. Who cares what poetry does for the world as a whole...what does reality TV do for the world. If NO ONE likes something than it goes away. If at least some people like something it has value to them. That's good enough for me.

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I come to my family and friends, and I ask them to read a poem I've made. They say they don't want to, because poetry is boring. So they watch TV, and get high and drunk. I'm not saying I'm writing for myself as much as I'm saying that nobody will read what I write. But they will ask me what good does it do to write poetry.

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And what I've tried to ask before is: Don't you see how poetry is important in how it affects people, despite the form? The symbolic power it gives to life? That poetry gives life a meaning? That's the way I was using the idea, Poetry. It challenges, and it soothes, and it angers, and it makes you happy, makes you think, and feel, and consider things. And do things, with a sense of purpose.

Nope, they don't see it, and they probably never will. They aren't wired that way.