what is the point of writing poetry?

[billy]

yes but don't you see...it's YOUR explanation. i once knocked out a professional boxer. (all be it not a well known one), and friends were hailing me as some kind of hero. but what they were calling me isn't what or who i was. i am not what people make me, or what people say i am. it sounds like you had it bad, but didn't we all. i don't know your pain nor do i want to, i also don't want people to know mine. it won't affect how i see your poetry. how can it, i will never know it's truth or untruth. my life as a kid was a violent road wreck of epic proportions but so what, my family all hate poetry to their last atom, i accept that they're not me, i hate watching soaps and talk of what's fashionable this year. i think therefore i think. that you have to do the constructing thing for your "who you are' is tragic but it's what you have to do, or not do. all i see are words. all i am is words. i so love and enjoy the interaction we have on this site but i'm selfish, i don't care about you all, all i care about is sharing through poetry. it doesn't have to be real. when i get to know some in certain ways, (like i know jack) (like i know some others) it enriches me but it still doesn't mean we really know each other. you say your family sent the book to the doctors...was he a publisher sorry about that. my point is if my family did that i'd be thrilled, just at having the opportunity to take the piss out of my family and my doctor. if my doctor told me my book was crazy, i'd tell he should see what i do with peanuts. give what you get take what you need, if you can't just walk away, enjoy the pain. see what i'm saying...i'm saying a bit of everything cos we don't know the poet. it's why we don't critique the poet. pain doesn't make a better poem, that's the job of words.