Is Poetry Making A Comeback?

High school-me wanted to become a poet. So did college-me. Then a professor pointed out at one point that to become a poet, one accepts that very few people, and often nobody at all, will read your work. Poverty and a small audience were the burden of the genre. So, my poet days were over.

Which is ironic, because that decision in college did not actually make me reject poetry. In fact, in some ways, it made poetry more inviting, more delicious–the thing I read and wrote when the rest of the world’s expectations were put on hold. And now, sometimes, I want to hold down people and force them to read poetry. I’m imagining a situation something like A Clockwork Orange’s film watching scene, but less terrifying and with just Scotch tape. I can sense a similar desire for people to give poetry more of a chance in Roxane Gay’s brief article for the Poetry Foundation pointing out her love for the writing form she feels she knows little about: “I could write of the poets and poems that reach into my mind, my body, and never run out of words.”

But then again, maybe my professor was wrong. Maybe in a traditionalist sense, yes, many chapbooks aren’t read. Most poets go into the world only to be read by other poets. What’s important here is to note that a rejection of online audiences by traditional poets maintains the isolation of poetry. It seems that 2016 was the year for online poetry access to crack open wide.