What do you think?

[unchained soul]

Do you find that alot of people you meet dont have the same passion for poetry that you do? Im yet to find someone who's as into it as I am. Apart from the people on here of course.

[pseud]

I've found one, but then she always liked poetry more than I did.

[camus]

Indeed,

It's difficult trying to share a passion with people who aren't really that bothered, I gave up trying.

Strange really as most of my friends are really into music, hence lyrics, which you'd think would be bossom buddies, alas this doesn't seem to be the case, definitely a different game.

[unchained soul]

I think its a shame because they're missing out on something really enjoyable. Mind you I suppose they find other stuff enjoyable that I'd find really boring! Problem is poetry has the reputation of being boring so people dont give it a chance.

[Bombadil]

I have found none (well perhaps one) in my non-internet life. Most anyone who'll give my shit the time of day doesn't understand it. You get the perfunctory "Oh...that's really neat"

That's why I'm here.

[cameron]

Good thread chaps.

With the exception of 1 year on a creative writing course, I too have been deprived of people to talk poetry with. Down the pub we do work, politics, music, mountain bikes and TV but never poetry.

That's the wonder of the internet and fine forums such as this (even if I say so myself). It's like being there with T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound - well almost.

Cam

[Thomas]

I find the same no one understands why i write some people read and say Gosh would love to write like that,Out of politness who knows?But i plod on anyway even be iot all alone in my writing poetry..Tom..

[pseud]

I wonder if poets have always had this problem?

[camus]

Well,

Probably best all round really.

Just imagine what a bunch of boring bees we would all become, flouncing around discussing poetry day and night. Perhaps best kept to the confines of these splendid walls.

[Thomas]

My wife reckons i'm strange sometimes on a nice day maybe in the evening and the kids are in bed etc..I like to lie down in the garden and just day dream into the clouds helps me think,But the wife always chuckles at herself bless.....To me all i'm doing is thinking it's amazing how other folk interpret actions as odd...LOL....

[unchained soul]

Well I just think we're a bunch of wierdos! Only joking.

I agree with Camus, it would be boring if all we did was quote poetry. Would be like being stuck in a Romeo & Juliet film.

I've got a vivid imagination and I'm pretty proud of it myself. Dont know about the rest of you.

Rach aka Unchained Soul

[pb]

I agree that the shine would be taken out of it all if we discussed poetry all day. But then there is a certain snobbery that comes when you write poetry - and I think we are probably all culprits - and which is not dented but positively bolstered with every funny look or snide remark about fields of daffodils. Discussion of poetry with poets definitely enriches it all. I'm going away to Eastern Europe for the summer on thursday with a fellow fledgeling poet and I'm looking forward to it being a sort of Wordsworthian/Coleridgian annus mirabilis! In our minds at least.

pb

[Derek]

Few people share my passion for writing poetry but many people I know make quotes when they are trying to sound clever and are very drunk.
Lyrics and poetry are close. A bad singer can make a great song sound bad and a good singer can make a bad song sound great, lyrically. When reading poetry you are the entertainer and it is up to the reader to make the most of the words and give it a good performance. It is easy to put on a CD and listen to other people giving it everything but when reading poetry, most people I know think it was that boring time at school being forced to read and understand something very difficult to understand written by someone who died in poverty hundreds of years ago.
This is a good thread. The modern world has so much to offer. Being able to read and share poetry from your home is a great experience. It must have been a lonely and frustrating world for the great poets that never became known and for many that were known. Many of them had no distractions like TV or radio to take their minds away from their daily thoughts that probably no one around them understaood.

[dillingworth]

being at university means it's much easier for me to meet other people interested in poetry - i've set up a poetry society which has a small but keen group of people who like to write, read and listen to poetry. seeing all the comments on here makes it clear to me how fortunate i am to have opportunities to meet other people interested in poetry.

[cameron]

Good luck with your poetry society Dave. Maybe it will become the 21st Century's version of The Apostles.

Cam

[seeksthebalance]

I haven't had anyone to discuss poetry with since my second year at uni. I had an awesome poetry group there with a tutor who loved his job and students who were passionate about words and expression.

The singer of my band has recently started to read some poetry and I'm think it will expand his abitlities a as a songwriter so hopefully some healthy poetic discussions on the way.

Perhaps though it is more important to discuss the finer points of what we write about than how we write it... that was always what inspired me the most in school and uni. You guys know more than enough about the finer points of structure for me to learn plenty here so in the 'real' world I like to discuss content.

[susie g]

I wonder how much attitudes are formed by how poetry is presented at school? I was fortunate in having all sorts of books at home, in being taken to the local libraries and also in having English teachers in most of the schools I attended who had a genuine love of language. Poetry was never shown as "soppy". I have vivid memories of Stevenson's(I'm sure it's his!) Railway poem... "Faster than fairies, Faster than witches. Over the hills and the dales and the ditches", more or less accurate but it was the use of words and rhythms that stuck.

I tried to carry this on with my girls presumably successfully as one has now graduated 1st class honours in English and Drama Studies and the other two read to their children. I do hope that sites like this will stay alive and kicking as there seems to be so little out there which encourages a love of words and language, unless it is crudity and vulgarity, which is usually misspelt!

Sue