  Poetry
This week: Poetry and Audience Edited by: Fyn  
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I've found that if you just try to make the film you want, you'll find the right audience. If you try to please everyone, you're going to make really boring films. ~~Drew Goddard
I try to bring the audience's own drama - tears and laughter they know about - to them. ~~Judy Garland
That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. ~~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed. ~~Umberto Eco
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Audience is who we write to -- right? Audience being a judge or the general public, our readers. Or are we writing for ourselves first? Personally, sometimes I am writing to one or the other. When it is for a prompt, I write to the prompt and, if I know them well, I'll admit, I write to the judges. I mean, whatever might work, right? When I have a poem rumbling around in my head, then I am writing for me. If I am ghosting a book, I write to mimic the author's voice and say what they want said because it is their story, not mine. I have to stay out of 'my' head in that case.
I was wondering what others here at WDC thought, so I asked. Here are some of their responses.
ShiShad  : I have written many poems for contest entries, however, very few of those have given me as much satisfaction as when the words come from my heart and flow off my fingertips ... I do remember how much emotion I felt and how the tears flowed as fast as my words did when I wrote it. To me that is what writing poetry is meant to be about - feelings that come from the soul.
Steev the Friction Wizurd  : I'm not a poet, but I've written some poetry. I think the question of whether someone writes something for himself or for an audience is usually irrelevant. I am part of the audience. I don't consider myself as somehow "different" from anyone else who will read the poem except, of course, that every reader's "reaction" IS different and mine will be extremely affected by the fact that I am the author. That's why I will give myself 6 stars.
Choconut  : I always write for myself. If I don't, it doesn't work. So even if I'm writing for a contest and there is a prompt, I have to turn it into something that stirs me emotionally. It has to come from deep inside me. The only exceptions are when I'm writing something light and whimsical. But I don't do that very often. Honestly, I never think about the judges when I write (maybe I shouldn't say that). I think I struggle when I think about my audience. So much of the poetry I write is about exorcise get my demons and expressing myself, so it's not written for anyone other than me.
Alexi  : I write from the heart and always try to think outside the box. I would like to think that an audience liked or had some emotion from my poems ... it comes from inside me and I have to feel what I feel and what others feel. If that makes sense.
Monty  : I write for myself and at times for the people that will be reading my words if I think I have an inspiration that to another I may stir.
Rhyssa : Like most of my writing, I write my first draft for me. I revise and make it worthy to read for an audience.
When I think I'm going to write a poem about "this, that, or the other thing" usually when I start writing, I find that I was wrong, and I'm actually writing a poem about something tangential, that touches there, but is actually quite different. So, my poetry exposes things to me that are within myself. But when I post, I post for those who will read it--the subject is for me, the posting is so other people will appreciate something in the poem.
If I write specifically for a contest--I only can do it if there is something in the prompt that speaks to something in me or if I'm challenging myself to write to a specific contest (which I sometimes do). I don't know enough about the judge (generally) to write to that specific person. I don't research the judge or change my poem to cater to what the judge thinks is good, although sometimes I won't enter a poem inspired by a contest, if it goes off in a direction the judge specifically has said they didn't like.
Generally, the intended audience doesn't affect what I write. How I shape it afterwards, whether I go towards funny or deep, whether I change a rhyme to fit a required word (or a forbidden word for that matter) where I end it, those tend to be more about audience.
Elfin Dragon-finally published : Some good questions for NaPoWriMo
1) I mostly write poetry for myself. I'm not afraid to say that I'm Bi-Polar with a few other problems thrown in. Writing poetry helps center and ground me. It helps me put my emotions on the page and release tension. In this manner I can deal with the world around me better.
2) This month I'm using the prompts in "Dew Drop Inn" to write my poetry. I usually write just what I'm feeling unless it's for a contest. But I also write mostly what I feel, not specifically for those who will read it. There are some exceptions though. As with Project Write World. With something like that I not only consider what I feel but that of my reader as well.
3) When I'm writing or a contest I only write what comes to me with the prompt. I don't consider who's judging it. (Maybe that's why I don't win too many of them. LOL) At any rate, I've always believed poetry should come from the heart and soul of a person.
4) My intended audience only affects what I write when I write stories or my novel - not my poetry. On second thought, maybe not even my stories or my novel. I write what I enjoy writing. Sure I might tweak stories so it may be geared towards intended audiences a bit more, but it's still what I love and has not changed.
A.T.B: It'sWhatWeDo : The vast majority of my poetry - and lyrical prose - isn't ever seen or prompted for competitions etc, and it falls into what I call "letters never sent" (the fairly cliche idea of writing your real feelings to someone/about something and then sitting on it a while before burning or shredding it). So I need a target ... err, subject, typically second person perspective, or it could be a thinking-out-loud but written-down confessional first person type. If it's good I'll tweak it into a song structure to see if it's a workable melody - all hail the thesaurus - and that's that. Or it's shredded/burned/both etc.
RavenAmor }: I write poetry for myself but it is meant to help others and to give them hope in dark times.
Eric the Fred :My poetry writing days are largely in the past. I only dabble on occasion now. But, I write poetry for the artistic and intellectual challenge of finding a means to express more than the words themselves say. At the root of it, that means I'm writing it for myself.
As for contests, I write to the prompt and other parameters, and otherwise proceed as always. If the judge finds some issue with it that I don't agree with, it doesn't bother me, because I really just used the contest as a means to inspire my writing anyhow.
In pretty much exact opposition to how I write prose, I don't consider an intended audience in poetry. To me, poetry is an art meant to reach anyone who reads it, and 'all humankind' is not an audience you can really put in your head and write to.
So, for the most part, folks tend to write for themselves, first and foremost and then worry about the reader...or don't worry about them at all. I don't thin there is any 'true' writer ... err ... right way, but I was really curious. I remember being in writing classes where I wrote for me and tanked them; whereas when I wrote for the intended audience (the professor) I aced the classes. Interesting, in that it pointed out to me that audience is important! I guess it is the 'how important at any given time' is the question.
I know that poems that appear in my port that are simply written to get them out of my head are mostly for me alone. And yet ...
And yet, as a poet, I want my stuff read. I want to know the impact a piece has on someone. I want it to touch some part of their soul. (And if it doesn't, to figure out how I might have written it differently. At which point, I may (or not) change it, revise it, play with it some more.
Basically, I think it comes down to this: we write (what ever it is that we write) because we cannot not write. Perhaps our poetry is like seeds free thrown from a meandering hand. We can but hope they land on fallow ground and bloom.
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kmac380 says: Terrific newsletter! I found myself smiling as I read about your feelings while in Hawaii. I, too, have traveled a lot and found Ireland to be the place I felt I really belonged. I never could quite put my finger on the reason why...I just did. Your newsletter brought those feelings back to the fore. A friend laughed it off saying maybe I lived there in a past life. I think maybe certain places and their people just connect with those who can truly appreciate them. For the record, Maui, Kauai and Oahu are gorgeous places.
I agree :)
Sum1's In Seattle  writes: ... What you experienced in Hawaii, was the spirit of Aloha. A oneness with the islands, the land, and the people. You become more aware of life around you, how important everything, and I do mean everything, is. You especially become aware of the love people have for the islands, and for those who embrace the culture. I embrace it, and try to live it every day.
SO true!
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Poetry: April 19, 2017 Issue [#8240]
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