Who’s Afraid of Poetry? Institutionalised Bias, anyone?

✨ This blog post is inspired by the content available in Empowered Beginning, an introduction (or re-introduction) to writing poetry. ✨

Let's be honest for a moment - Poetry is intimidating.

And I believe that is because when we first learn about poetry we are often reading it, not writing it.

As students in a typical school setting we are asked to analyse how and why someone wrote what they did. When I was at school we researched the poet's life and looked at their legacy.  Poets became a group of mythical beings who were intelligent enough to put thought to paper, and then revered enough to have it shared, and then loved enough to have it repeated for centuries. 

There were philosophical poets with big ideas, angry poets- with a bee in their bonnet about something.  In Australia we were taught that bush poets and war poets built the nation and instilled in us what it means to be Australian. 

Most of the analysis we learned focused on the ‘rules’. But the rules were written by a select group of mainly old, dead, white men. Sure, they knew a thing or two, and their work really is beautiful - but they are not the only people with ideas. The work was wonderful to read, but so far removed from our lives that participation in poetry circles felt impossible. 

For me, I always loved reading poetry. I loved the way writers played with words on the page and things could be expressed in a way I'd never thought to express them before. But it didn't occur to me that I could write my own poetry until I I found an old poetry book - Come to Me, My Melancholy Baby, written by Kate Jennings - in an antique shop. It led to me searching out the works of the feminist Australian poets from the 1970s and 80s, and eventually I began to write my own work - teenage angst mostly, but it ignited a real passion in me. I worked as hard as I could to gain entry to university where I completed an Honours Degree in Literary Studies and Creative Writing.

However when I got to university and began to study poetry more seriously, I gave up on the idea of publishing poetry, and outside of my assignments I gave up writing poetry. I was overwhelmed with the sense that everything had already been written, I was too scared to be political or offend someone, I was worried that I could never write as well as the poetry I was reading in that course. I wasn’t studying Kate Jennings, or the poetry that I loved reading - I was studying a mix of the classics and the new contemporary poets, that I had nothing in common with.

It took me another decade to write poetry again.

And when I did, I experienced a level of success that proved to me that those theories that I had, that were given to me in a university setting, were incorrect. I began to learn that in the real world, poetry exists on so many levels in so many cultures with so many voices that perhaps aren’t published in traditional poetry journals. But those voices are out there self publishing, or community publishing, or being picked up by small presses or larger publishing houses and they are brilliant and they need to be heard.

And I got back to the joy in simply writing.

Writing for myself…and then seeing where that leads - and let me tell you it’s led to some amazing places.

And I learned that the poets that we admire and enjoy - while they are wonderful to read, are not always the best to compare ourselves to as we write.

Now, I’m certainly not saying that any of the classic, or well-known poems or poets aren’t relevant, or important. I loved learning about Thomas Hardy, William Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson, and I still do - I still read their work, I even lugged my family through the Lakes District in England for a Wordsworth-fest when I was lucky enough to visit. But what I am saying is that it’s important to be clear about how perhaps institutionalised bias has led you to a place of admiration for certain poets or styles of poetry which might be impacting your own inner critic.

A little prompt to find your empowered voice

So now that I have shared a little of my story about learning to love poetry, it’s your turn. 

Take a moment to  your own relationship with poetry, what you love and what brought you to the end of this article today. Consider if your old beliefs about ‘good’ poetry still serve you.

Let me be clear- you need to develop your own voice, your own style and let go of what is not serving you to make space to determine your own magic.  

Let go of old ideas in order for you to write with authenticity and purpose.

Let’s write poetry that feels like yours.

💛 A Gentle Invitation

If this resonated with you, you might love my course Empowered Beginnings — a creative and welcoming online course for new and returning poets. Read more here.