Freedom of expression in Poetry.

[NobodyNothing]

First off, poetry is not dead. One of the biggest mass cultural phenomenons of the last 35-40 years is rap/hip-hop, which is basically street poetry set to hard driving beats (though it's evolved in many different ways since).

Also, where I live, the performance poetry scene is alive and kicking. When I first stumbled upon poetry, I soon-after got enamored by and drawn into it. I would say that 80-90% of the poetry I wrote was specifically designed for how well it might play live, as in could it hook a live voting audience in 4 minutes and take down an opponent(s)?

I quickly learned what might work in such a setting, and what wouldn't. The proof was in the pudding: Did you win the audience and advance, or not? The audiences for all the prelims was about 100-150 people (my guess), and the regional finals were in front of an audience of about 3-4000 thousand (again my guess).

Anyway...point being there are different "scenes/settings" for the poetry experience other than The New Yorker or more obscure literary journals/publications or published books of poetry, some of which rise up to iconic status, as in claiming the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, or National Book Critics award, and the like.

Ah...whatever...