Not to mention the time it takes to understand one s own culture and figure out one s place in that culture. Another misconception is the idea that poetry is somehow legitimized by the power of the emotion a person felt while composing it, or while experiencing whatever emotion informs the poem s content. That misconceptions, and the idea that an expression is legitimate because it really happened are the two that my students present me with most frequently. I think most poets who teach would say the same thing. I am constantly baffled by the dissociation of artistry from the writing of poems.
People feel that just getting out what they had to say makes it a poem.
It takes most people a number of years of practice before they can figure out how to stand outside and above their own material and manipulate it, rearrange chronologies, fictionalize, embellish with figuration, fragment, juxtapose without writing in the transitions, etc. Most writers who call themselves poets these days really have a very narrow range of tools at there disposal and they work those same old strategies over and over again, thinking that it s the content that s important. Not only a narrow range of tools, but a narrow range of subjects and the ability to work only within a narrow range of tonalities. Those are not my kind of poets. I honor them in my heart because I know they re just as earnest and committed as I am to furthering this art, but I don t enjoy reading their poems.