Poetry is anything that you want it to be, as we all know as poets the same words are often more than one thing, the intention of the poet is always interpreted by the reader, and at times miss-interpreted. One thing that poetry is not though, is profitable. And yet there are so many poets out there, Poetry Soup alone boasts 21000+ of us, there are also many other writing communities, poetry magazines, poetry groups, and competitions, but somehow so little publicity. A few musicians can make millions, which no doubt gives many of the others an incentive, while poets hope to make a few hundred. Musicians can influence billions of people, while poets hope to impress their friends and other community members. Why are we the poorly understood cousins? Every culture that I am aware of has its famous poets, though most are dead (Poetry Soup has been kind enough to even give us access to a number of their works), but where are poets now?
We're here, that's where! Sharing our thoughts, our poems, our lives. Excellent! Fantastic, and thanks for the good folk of Poetry Soup for giving us this haven, this place to meet. Many of our members here are very accomplished poets, having published widely, and won numerous competitions. They walk amongst us giving guidance, reassurances, and support, and for that we thank them (take a bow)
I am not a competition winner, or a widely published poet. I have been published, letting my words freely fall onto the pages of locally printed Poetry Anthologies, but my bank account has stayed dry
So what do I do? I want to make poetry bigger, to make it known, to take it to the world. I applaud the man who entered Australia's Got Talent to read poetry, but I don't have the confidence yet to make that move. So what I did was join Poetry Soup, and started a Twitter account, I even posted two poems on You tube. Through these mediums I have met many more poets than gather here in my small town. I have taken some of the poems here from Soup and tweeted links to them. Hopefully with some benefit to the poet. I have had one of my own tweeted by others, with a noticeable increase in traffic. But I am only one, and my time is often too short. So I wrote a blog many months ago, which attracted the attention of a few, most notably "Just That Archaic Poet" (many many thanks to you), and now we are two. Two who plan to make a united action with the intention to push the range of poetry. Our own and anyone else's who agrees.
Is there anyone out there who like would to join us? Please remember that at this stage a united effort is the best (I think). After all, those other scattered poetry communities, institutions and magazines, haven't really got us there yet, have they. To that end I have my fledgling Twitter account "poetscott37", and "Just That Archaic Poet" is taking on Redbubble. Would anyone have a Facebook, Tumblr, or Pinterest account, or be happy to create one? Maybe someone has a twitter account or is on Redbubble? We will need to link up in some way, but I'm sure that can't be too hard.
So come aid the poetry resurrection, and most of all, have some fun.
Cheers to you all, eagerly awaiting any input, thoughts, suggestions, help...
Scott