Why is poetry important?
I think poetry has perhaps the most freedom of any art form because it is least beholden to the system of predatory capitalism that runs all our daily lives. Obviously there are tons of issues around cultural capitalism, gatekeeping and lack of representation in the poetry world, but with such low economic stakes poems are more open and less accountable to validate their abstract worth. In my experience, this had always led to a sustained and joyful relationship with poems and the people who write them. Also, externalizing anything internal, whether it’s narrative, conceptual device, lyric, or visual arrangement on the page, or any combination of, presupposes an audience, even if it never gets published. The intention is relational. Poetry is very intimate and wound up in our complex relationships with other people, as well as maybe most importantly our multiplicity of selves.
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