(01-28-2013, 02:57 PM)doolasmind#11 Wrote: As i read this sentence i can't help but think it should be "most people are ignorant by choice but if they're given..."I think they dismiss it because they don't like it. They didn't like it in school. They don't like it now. Most people choose not to even read these days. We are not in a literate age. Poetry suffers for that. You are never going to reach the masses now. Poetry hasn't had that type of audience for hundreds of years-if it ever did. Too many easier entertainments exist today for it ever to be a draw now. So, I'm not too concerned about reaching some mythical common man who thinks that a Hallmark card has a deep message of love for his spouse. He will never be my audience.
it doesn't take a rocket scientist to read poetry yet most people just dismiss it offhand because they have a preconceived notion about it. after all if the "mass" is dictating your life then you had better fall in line with how they think, and quirky one-liners are in and deep meaningful artworks are out. you have to play to the audience like shakespeare said all the world's a stage.
Watering it down for him, will just make what you create suck. It isn't how I'd choose to spend my time. Poetry is less about immediate audience, and more about the act of creating something good that didn't exist before.
The way is broad that leads to stupidity and many are those who find it.
The way is narrow that leads to anything worthwhile and well survivor is in it's 54th season so we'll pass.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson