Poetry ought to make the reader see the world as its author sees it. A poem should make the reader think- “Wow, the world has never looked like this before”. If the poem does not create the effect the author intends on the intended audience, then I believe it is an ineffective poem. A poem does not need to have mass appeal in order to be successful. If a poem is written for a single person’s consumption, it shouldn’t matter to the poet what the entire world thinks of it. A poem’s form should be deliberate, and have specific purpose. No form of poetry is ‘wrong’. Every line, stress, and shape present in a poem must not distract from its purpose; they ought to strengthen the poem in a visual and/or audial manner. The strength of a poem also lies in the gaps left between the text. It makes the reader’s mind wander and wonder, allowing em to put the poet’s perspective alongside eir own. It also eliminates the frustrating conventions of contemporary English (certain unclear pronouns, for one) and allows the meaning to escape from the tangle of language rules, and even language itself.
P.S. I’m rather fond of the Spivak gender-neutral pronoun, demonstrated above.
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