Why do people write poetry?

[Touchstone]

[Leanne]

So true.

[billy]

yeah, i have to be honest and say like an idiot i wrote love poems for my partner. i thought they were the dog's bollocks
what's wierd is, so did she. not skill wise and probably not content wise, but effort wise and that i took the time out to write her a love poem. poetry = sex (the poems were utter crap but done with love )

[Wildcard]

That's why I started playing guitar and singing. I've written all kinds of bullshit songs to girls over the years . . . sometimes drawing some old song I wrote for another chick and changing the name

[billy]

you're a player AA

[Wildcard]

Men are only as noble as their options.

[abu nuwas]

This discussion took a wrong turn, before it was even in gear, and before anyone had turned the ignition. Not that the comments above are anything less than Universal Truths; I am sure they are ---- but what about the question? Why do they? If it were only because they were too mean to invest in a box of chocolates, they would not be writing about the range of topics they do... and what about the gels? Do they do it just to get into aaa bloke's Y-fronts?

[Aish]

I write because words are my first and greatest love. I am fascinated with them, the fact that little characters can become familiar, mimic sounds, illicit emotions, or relay information. I was writing poetry before I was 9 years old, so the best answer I can give you for why I personally write is because it is a compulsion deep within my being.

---

If we look back to historic poetry as a clue, I draw the conclusion that poetry, stories, music, sculpture is an attempt to transcend the limitations of our physical affliction and create shared beauty.

Unless you're Billy or Ava - then it's just to make some halfwit chicks eyes glaze over momentarily with a few haphazardly strung together cliches.

[abu nuwas]

First, let me make it absolutely clear that I would never describe any Modern Woman as 'some half-wit chick'. As for eye-glazing, much better to pinch from a Master: Byron and 'She walks in beauty' are likely to be more effective than one's own amateurish compositions.

Aish knows her own motivations: she scratches her itch, it is something she does in the same way a cat plays with a mouse.

She also lumps it with the other arts, and, although paradoxically they are sometimes seen as lonely trades, it is I think indisputable that each contributes to the way society bonds. It had not occurred to me before, but I now wonder if they do not take the cultural mantle by turns. I mean, that , for example, once published material was freely circulating, all that would have been required in a Victorian salon, or more humble home, would have been a fine speaking voice, and one can easily imagine why the Romantic and Victorian poets became so well known, with many lines slipping into common speech. But then, courtesy of some more technology, whereas music was once badly played from sheet-music, all of a sudden, the very best of any genre is available, on tap. What man is then going to recite some long dirge, when he can just as easily--more so-- put a vinyl record on, wind it up, and impress the ladies and himself with such hits as 'I'm a shy young chap' or 'Twas on the steamer comin' over' ? In other words, music pushed out poesy. And yet people write......?

[Wildcard]

I write songs and receive a good deal of satisfaction from recording them and seeking their publication. As for poetry, I started only recently, but I feel much the same content from capturing a moment or feeling in a poem as I do in a song. Truthfully, I started playing guitar because I was jealous of other people that could express what I heard in my head with their fingers on an instrument. I have never gotten to the point that I can play anything I can imagine, but still I find it enjoyable to try.

[billy]

i write because i like to. it doesn't empower me or make me vfeel a better person. i do enjoy it when i ink a half decent one out (which is very rare) it's something to do is all. i could have easily took up somethink else.
if i had another universal truth it's that if i were able i'd be white water rafting or sky-diving or something else. but i can't so i'm here. i travel but it's not often enough to use up my spare time, so sorry to say, i write because i have nothing better to do.

like aish, i do love words. so much so you won't believe how much. i love the discourse they create.

[grannyjill]

I wrote because the urge to do so grew so strong I couldn't ignore it any more.

And once I started it was like a dam breaking, loads of stuff poured out (mostly absolute crap - thank god it never came into the public domain!) and now (with occasional very dry periods) I still get excited by the creative process and love to snatch moments to write something.

1997 was the year I began to write, and here we are a decade and more late and I am still interested in poetry. Amazing. I have a grasshopper mind and usually I leap on new things and become obsessed with them, but never pursue the object of my love for long...so the writing of poetry must be really special.

(ps as a small, rather sad little child at primary school I used to store up words in my head to recite to myself...I still remember some of them 'peripatetic, aurora borealis, popocatapetl...so a love of words was there right at my beginning)

[Leanne]

I write because I'm a masochist. I love to punish myself with the knowledge that there's one thing I am slightly more than mediocre at, and I'll never be able to make money from it

[billy]

i write because leanne makes lessons for me, i'll be doing the nonsense lesson to day after i get a hair cut
i love arguing on forums it's fun. i do enjoy reading the poetry of others, even more so now i'm not getting much time to write.

[Leanne]

I write because Billy gets his hair cut