What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?
I am very lucky in that I live in NYC surrounded by other poets, and most of my friends are poets, so they get it. I also am privileged to be able teach poetry/creative writing as a career (which is another way it’s centered in my life), but sometimes writing in a genre that is so obscure does feel a little absurd. I think it’s hard for people who aren’t poets to understand how one could spend hundreds of hours on a single page of writing that no one is ever going to give you money for, and very few people are going to read. Sometimes I can’t believe that I feel such a strong compulsion for poetry. I have some economic stability in my life now, but until very recently I was always struggling to figure out how to survive and still have time to write. I am not someone who can dash things off and have them be good (at least most of the time). For me, it usually takes a lot of work to write something I feel good about.
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