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Response
What Does It Mean To Be a Poet?
(And why does the phrase “self-pitying confessions” fail to include white men writing about themselves?)
Or: Why Medium needs to consider something other than self-tagging on important topics like “Poetry”
“They statements” — sweeping generalizations that dismiss entire groups or genres — can ruin a community. Using them can stop someone from entering a space. Such attacks stunt the growth of an art form by turning away those who are afraid to come forward.
Supporting a story that deals in broad, unsupported assaults on modern poetry with approving comments when you are respected in what should be an inclusive community, as Christina M. Ward and William J Spirdione did this week, turns off new writers from trying to write.
In addition to the voices of their parents and teachers telling them they are not that vague pinnacle of “good enough,” emerging poets are now questioning whether their peers will see any writing as “one of them.” “Them,” the legions of vapid writers being complained about.
A poorly-researched, thoroughly quotation-padded complaint by Erik Rittenberry (I feel it is unfair to continue a conversation about someone without including them so they can respond, chalk…
