The same drumbeat. The same debates. The same monotone. On repeat. Poets reading poets, poets critiquing poets, poets writing elegies to poetry, poets annoyed that no one else reads a poem or cares. And yet there are stats to prove every point, stats to suit every argument, stats to the contrary. There are enough books to fit a rack, a shelf, a corner or two in a store. Poets being readers. Poets being poets.
For every raised voice that claims to have read a Wordsworth or a Rumi (no, these days is it Darwish and Rupi), there are a hundred that cannot name two contemporary poets. Not even one from their own country. What those wasting, shrivelling, screaming poets need, as they talk with the moon and measure the rhyme of a sea they have never seen, are cheerleaders. People who aren’t poets. People who don’t care if anyone else reads a poem or cares. People who will hype a poem, a verse, a line, a poet. Did I say that in the plural? No, a poet who thinks she is a metaphor for something yet to be known, who shuffles reality and shade, dealing cards with no hope to win or lose, that poet needs just one cheerleader. Just one. So that the morning starts with kindness. So that the afternoon sky stays up where it should be, bearing its sun. So that the night will fill itself with words like fireflies, a suggestion of light and motion that rejects being bound to a page. Think of it. A poet somewhere. A poem somewhere. Both birthed in anonymity. Both complete just from being. Just from writing. Still needing to be read. Still hoping to be read. The idea of a fruit, still waiting on a bee.
unwrapping its sky —
one by one
the night shows off its stars
You may be right. I have a compulsion to keep doing it anyway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Am glad you do 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love this! It made me smile. You’re so right, of course. Isn’t it a funny little trap? And yet how can one ever stop writing it, reading it, sharing it? You have to do it despite no cheerleaders. I second Phillip – I feel ya!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup, can’t stop! But the idea that we’ve broken through that closed loop is not true for the vast majority of poets. And yet!
LikeLiked by 1 person
i feel like we are in lock-step with this, rajani i feel ya, i sooooooooooooooooo feel ya
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Phillip, let’s hope poetry will find its way out of the maze!
LikeLike
I think the one reason to blog is that you almost always gets comment… a published poet may sell their copies of poetry adorning the coffee tables of people pretending to read.
LikeLike
And that’s a great point. There’s some actual engagement on a blog. But a lot of it is reciprocal commenting from other poets in a group. Very valuable support of course, but how does one break out of that and also reach a non-poet audience?
LikeLike
and what exactly is wrong with getting your work published? i’m a published poet, so is rajani. published = pretentious?????? see, it’s stuff like this, this is why i hate your poetry forum so much, this is why i hate dverse, the narrow ignorant attitudes. what is so diverse about “dverse”? i’m not seeing it. it seems to me that attitudes like yours are one of the reasons poetry is dead… just saying
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know what you mean, I ponder the same too. Maybe you and I need to join forces and conduct a research to get to the bottom of it. Lol! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Count me in!! I’m curious to know how it’s all working (or not working)!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“that poet needs just one cheerleader.” Amen to that, and to this beautiful “lament”!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Khaya. Poets and poems going through periodic existential crises 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m actually reading the article you linked on the comment above. Thank you for sharing it. And yeah, it also makes me wonder… doesn’t poetry deserve to be celebrated by more people!
LikeLike
I keep reading about how poetry is selling more /certainly not dead etc., but in real life, not seeing many readers who are not poets themselves. I wonder if that is the problem everywhere…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful poem. Wonderful narrative that reads like a poem.
LikeLike
Thank you, Cindy.. 🙏 💙
LikeLike
Every poet can relate….sometimes one comment is enough to make one’s day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And I do believe there are tons of poems out there that deserve so much more… it was this article in The Guardian that drove that bit of writing: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/24/no-rhyme-or-reason-why-is-poetry-missing-from-the-new-caffe-nero-book-awards
LikeLiked by 2 people