Excuse the hiatus, dear readers, but TWOL is happy to be back!
What is more poverty-inducing and arcane than fiction writing? If you guessed poetry, you might be right. In American society, the poet suffers even more greatly than fiction writer (although, ironically, we have a United States Poet Laureate, who is currently Ada Limón). Poetry is a shorter form, and therefore while it might be easier to publish a poem, there is such a slim market for chapbooks (=printed volumes usually for poetry that are not as long as a regular fiction book) that sustaining a career as a poet is a near impossibility without another profession such as teaching poetry in an academic setting or English, or another profession altogether. This is not unheard of for fiction writers; however, one can write commercial fiction and do quite well, or be a writer in a different capacity such as a tech writer or for an institution.
One might ask, why even write poetry at all? To which my response is, this is exactly why we need poetry. American society is overly practical, efficiency is one of the most lauded virtues, and language is used in a very straightforward fashion. Compare British and American English–you might find that the former is more flowery and ornate. Poetry gives us the opportunity to use language in a more unique, lyrical manner, and not be so logical. We can use it in a narrative fashion to tell a story in a less through-composed way, or in a confessional way to express our deepest sentiments. It can be used dramatically, onstage, though this has generally fallen out of fashion. However, actors will tell you that the best playwrights find the poetry in the language. Also, we do not speak in rhyme or alliteration, and poetry allows us to do this, to find the sense of play in how we phrase things.
Poetry also gives us continuity with the past. Countless cultures have used poetry to tell myths, epic sagas, religious tales, and to entertain. Poetry was favored in times of low literacy, for we were able to rely on our oral and aural skills to memorize the sounds and patterns of the words. Epics like the Hindu Mahabharata or the Finnish Kalevala are incredibly vital to their people and provide outsiders tremendous insight into the culture, linguistics, society, history, etc. of a culture.
Perhaps the phenomenon of bad poetry is what puts many people off. We’ve all seen the Morose Poet droning on and on in a café somewhere about her woes or read works that seem convoluted and inaccessible. Yes, those exist, but they are only part of the whole body of work. It was quite fascinating in my MFA program to have been required to attend lectures given by poets, and my undergrad coursework featured a couple of poetry courses (including two with Jonathan Wordsworth–William’s descendent–when studying abroad at Oxford University!) Poetry can inform fiction writers, because it teaches us about the richness of language and the precision and beauty of it. And this is not a phenomenon limited to the English language, for if you look at the Nobel laureates in literature, there are many poets among them, such as Szymborska, Tagore, Neruda, and yes, our own Bob Dylan.
Poetry is not esoteric; it is our most fundamental impulse with language. One of the earliest things that English speakers learn is the ABC song, which is set up to rhyme. And the basis of all popular songs is poetry–perhaps the most accessible, daily source of poetry that we have.