Simplicity in Poetry

[Leanne]

Just write. Seriously. Grow up. If someone is telling you they write for different reasons to you, then they write for different reasons to you. They're not you. If you need to write for the same reasons that other people write, then you probably don't need to write.

I made a conscious decision to focus my energy on writing poetry after having learned several different text types and ways of expression. Poetry worked for me because it gave me the most scope to do what I wanted to do in as little space as possible. I don't do it because it's easy, or because it gives me great exposure, or even because I particularly like other poets. I do it because I enjoy the process of doing it, and couldn't give a rat's about the end product except to make it better, because I enjoy that process as well. If others like it, good for them, but 90% of the time I'm just pissing into the wind. The poems that will always get the most comments, the most exposure, are the ones that people feel they don't have to work for -- and that's ok, because they're the kinds of political policies that get the most votes as well. That's why it's the status quo.

I won't dumb things down if people can't be bothered keeping up, but plenty will, and I'd suggest people who want it easy seek out the ones who make it easiest for them. That's diversity. And if, like pretty much every other time I open my mouth these days, people don't feel the need to respond to what I've got to say, I will not die of it and I will not stop doing it just because someone says they do it differently.