How To Become a Known Poet
The text below is taken from an email reply I sent to someone who emailed me recently about how to become a "known poet". I get this type of email fairly frequently at the very least because I'm not afraid - or too busy as of yet - to respond to them, though many people are just shooting in the dark that the person whose website they found actually cares about the work of someone they
a) don't know and
b) whose work they've never seen.
Contact can be touchy business, but I thought it important to respond to this one and then in the future just refer most of the general cases to this journal entry. I've added footnotes in [brackets], this being stuff I either feel I need to clarify now or I wish I had thought of before I hit send to the mailer.
I still won't read people's poems I odn't know, though:
================================================
Dear X...,
To your question, which was:
"I would like to know if you can give me some tips on how I can become a known poet. I have written several poems and I am 17 years old. After I graduate High School, I would like to continue my writing career."
There's a lot of things you're asking for (and because you asked me I'll be almost completely frank, though not quite) and I don't know if you have considered all
of the potential issues in your question. For instance, most notably, what do you mean by "known"? Published? On TV? In movies? Known in poetry circles? Which poetry circles: Publications? Journals? Books? Slams? Performance markets? Your
local open mic? Any of the host of other possiblities inbetween the lines? And before you say the worst answer that you could possibly give (which would be "all of
that"), let me tell you that where you might be (I don't know where you are) has a lot to do with how that success may be realized, whatever path that might be. [1]
The other thing that leaps out to me about your email is your age, but not in a bad way. I wish I was writing poems at 17, or at least knowing that that was
what I wanted to be doing. I'd be so much further in the game if that were the case. You have a good head start on a lot of people, so please keep up that momentum.
The thing that concerns me at the same time, however, is this line:
"I have written several poems..."
Several? Like, what 10? 25? How many poems are we talking about here? And despite the number, how good are they? When I put this idea next to this other one
you wrote:
"After I graduate High School, I would like to continue my writing career."
...I see a cause for concern in how you're defining your course and what you may be setting yourself up for, unless you've already done some gigs, published something (self or otherwise) or in some other way put your work into the public eye. I don't get the impression that you have a writing career, but a talent. What you want to do is make sure that you are honing your talent to as sharp a point as you can possibly make it and THEN pursue becoming a "known poet".
Of course, the largest cause for concern your question raises is that your goal is to be a "known poet"...not a good poet or a professional poet or a fine poet or a
performing poet. You want to be recognized as a poet, to be "seen" as a poet. Let me make this very clear: the world is filled to the brim and overflowing with people who want to be known poets whose work or abilities are horrible. Do not strive to be one of these people. Some of them are actually known, but not in the way they intend or, unfortunately in many cases, are even aware of.
You have a lot of questions to ask your question. You need those answers before you need the answer to the question you asked me. The one thing I'd like you to do with this response if you've made it this far is to print it out and take it to the one teacher in your school that you really, really respect and who supports what you want to do. If there is no such teacher for you, take it to someone who isn't ateacher
but fulfills that role in your life. Sit down with them and go over the points I raised and see if they agree or not. They may very well see or know something about you that I don't that makes my concerns mute. But if they agree with a perfect
stranger on any of the points, I beg you to take the advice seriously. I don't want you to not be a known poet, but I want you to make sure you're a good one [even if your'e not known, which, if the odds and the current state of the business of poetry is any indication, is a very possible outcome].
Again, I'm not exactly sure how you came across me (let me know), but I get emails like this from time to time, though I don't know that I've spent this much word count on a reply to any of them until now. Something just tells me to take the time to do this now. I hope it helps.
Yours in words,
Scott Woods
==================================
NOTES
-----------
[1] Where you live has a LOT to do with access to certain types of avenues of performance. It's alot easier to get on Def Poetry Jam if you like in Los Angeles or New York than if you like in Nelsonville, Ohio, for obvious reasons.
a) don't know and
b) whose work they've never seen.
Contact can be touchy business, but I thought it important to respond to this one and then in the future just refer most of the general cases to this journal entry. I've added footnotes in [brackets], this being stuff I either feel I need to clarify now or I wish I had thought of before I hit send to the mailer.
I still won't read people's poems I odn't know, though:
================================================
Dear X...,
To your question, which was:
"I would like to know if you can give me some tips on how I can become a known poet. I have written several poems and I am 17 years old. After I graduate High School, I would like to continue my writing career."
There's a lot of things you're asking for (and because you asked me I'll be almost completely frank, though not quite) and I don't know if you have considered all
of the potential issues in your question. For instance, most notably, what do you mean by "known"? Published? On TV? In movies? Known in poetry circles? Which poetry circles: Publications? Journals? Books? Slams? Performance markets? Your
local open mic? Any of the host of other possiblities inbetween the lines? And before you say the worst answer that you could possibly give (which would be "all of
that"), let me tell you that where you might be (I don't know where you are) has a lot to do with how that success may be realized, whatever path that might be. [1]
The other thing that leaps out to me about your email is your age, but not in a bad way. I wish I was writing poems at 17, or at least knowing that that was
what I wanted to be doing. I'd be so much further in the game if that were the case. You have a good head start on a lot of people, so please keep up that momentum.
The thing that concerns me at the same time, however, is this line:
"I have written several poems..."
Several? Like, what 10? 25? How many poems are we talking about here? And despite the number, how good are they? When I put this idea next to this other one
you wrote:
"After I graduate High School, I would like to continue my writing career."
...I see a cause for concern in how you're defining your course and what you may be setting yourself up for, unless you've already done some gigs, published something (self or otherwise) or in some other way put your work into the public eye. I don't get the impression that you have a writing career, but a talent. What you want to do is make sure that you are honing your talent to as sharp a point as you can possibly make it and THEN pursue becoming a "known poet".
Of course, the largest cause for concern your question raises is that your goal is to be a "known poet"...not a good poet or a professional poet or a fine poet or a
performing poet. You want to be recognized as a poet, to be "seen" as a poet. Let me make this very clear: the world is filled to the brim and overflowing with people who want to be known poets whose work or abilities are horrible. Do not strive to be one of these people. Some of them are actually known, but not in the way they intend or, unfortunately in many cases, are even aware of.
You have a lot of questions to ask your question. You need those answers before you need the answer to the question you asked me. The one thing I'd like you to do with this response if you've made it this far is to print it out and take it to the one teacher in your school that you really, really respect and who supports what you want to do. If there is no such teacher for you, take it to someone who isn't ateacher
but fulfills that role in your life. Sit down with them and go over the points I raised and see if they agree or not. They may very well see or know something about you that I don't that makes my concerns mute. But if they agree with a perfect
stranger on any of the points, I beg you to take the advice seriously. I don't want you to not be a known poet, but I want you to make sure you're a good one [even if your'e not known, which, if the odds and the current state of the business of poetry is any indication, is a very possible outcome].
Again, I'm not exactly sure how you came across me (let me know), but I get emails like this from time to time, though I don't know that I've spent this much word count on a reply to any of them until now. Something just tells me to take the time to do this now. I hope it helps.
Yours in words,
Scott Woods
==================================
NOTES
-----------
[1] Where you live has a LOT to do with access to certain types of avenues of performance. It's alot easier to get on Def Poetry Jam if you like in Los Angeles or New York than if you like in Nelsonville, Ohio, for obvious reasons.