a point arose about this is not poetry

[Erthona]

I think you never know what is going to hurt someone's feelings,and someone who is a poet will continue no matter what because they do not have a choice. Even if everyone in the world told me my writing was shit, I would still write. The muse will wake me in the middle of the night and not let me get back to sleep until I write down what she wants me to write. If you are going to be a poet, you need to grow a thicker skin so you can get past all the BS and learn to hear criticism effectively. The paradox is that the only way to grow a thick skin is to have people tell you things you don't want to hear, coddling someone only keeps them from growing. A poet will never develop if his ego is constantly hanging out there to get batted around like a cat playing with a ball on a string. Egoism stops the creative energy.

"a good teacher won't offend the student"

A good teacher will offend his student if that is what the student needs. People hold sensibilities that are not conducive to their growth, and so they need to be made aware of this. Such an encounter is rarely pleasant.

Dale