Which is more constructive?

[ellajam]

weeded wrote:
To which I wonder... what is the point of poetry? Is it to express that which is in ones mind/soul, is it to inspire thoughts and ideas in others, is it to change the world with words, or is it to please/impress others with the use of learned tools/techniques?

Use of tools/techniques is only impressive when it comes together with an idea and raises that idea into something that reaches outside and above itself. I recently had two readers agree that one of my poems was "competent", quite a low bar for a poem. It was an idea that interested me enough to write about it and it came out in a form I enjoy writing in, but they did not come together well enough to make something more than the sum of its parts.

I think the fun of all arts is expressive, the work of all arts is to express it so finely that the reader/viewer gets an effective impression of the whole, much more likely when it is crafted with care and honed technique.

I love this site not because I express myself more (I'll always be a babbling fool, making something or other), but because it has taught me how to refine my words, remove what distracts from my point, in fact read my own work more closely so that I myself can understand what that point is.

Learning this would not have been possible if members were not willing to point out where my words were not doing the job they needed to. Had the members of the site not encouraged me to investigate various forms I would not have the variety of armatures to hang my ideas and words on that I have now, not to mention the fun of learning to play with language in new ways. Reading others' work closely enough to comment has enabled me to refine my own voice.

For me, the workshop format of the pigpen has worked, I'm sure partly because there are so many parts of the site to just goof around in while the workshops are the studios set up for work and growth. I need both, I want it all.