Few publishers want to print books of poems. Poetry is a minority interest, and sometimes it seems that there are poets everywhere, few of them writing memorable verse. I don’t blame publishers for preferring novels or biographies. Even cook books sell better than poetry.
These are my published output. Holding them ‘hot off the press’ gave me a thrill, as I suppose it would any writer. But the rise and rise of the internet, and the proliferation of blogs, means that new poetry can easily be found. What is difficult is to write something that stands out. The most a poet can do is post stuff on a blog, and read in public forums or ‘Poetry Slams’ (dreadful term!) in the hope that somebody will notice.
Yes its hard times for poets but wasn’t it ever thus. I recall Ovids father warned him off against a career in poetry with the words., “Homer died poor”
Historically Tennyson and C.J Dennis were the only poets I can recall who made a good living out of poetry, and some would say dennis isn’t a “real” poet. The modern poets real problems are twofold, finding an audience and writing good poems
By: reverendhellfire on February 26, 2012
at 1:08 pm