I am not against academic poets

Those of you who read my last polemic may have thought that I am anti-academic poetry. For the record I am not. Academia and academic poets have a lot to offer (e.g. I recently completed the Modern and Contemporary American Poetry course from UPenn that was available as a MOOC and this course has changed my attitudes to and appreciation of poetry).

My complaint was more about some academics and notaries (not all of academia, Thank God) laying claim to the ownership of poetry, and claiming that lay people can not understand modern poetry.

Poetry belongs to all. Poetry expresses human experience in all of it's shades and hues. Prison poetry is just as valuable as academic poetry. They just have different audiences.

With the return of performance and slam poetry in the wider community, poetry is reaching out and this is good for all poets and poetry lovers.



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