Though I'm posting this close to the holidays, I've felt for a while that if you're a poet that teaches poetry or at least plays the publishing/chapbook/website game and you aren't dirt poor, a poem is a poor substitute for a gift. At least not as your only gift.
Especially since writing poems is something you do anyways!
Poems, and writing in general, tends to matter more to a loved one if the person they receive it from isn't a wordsmith to begin with. With professional (so to speak) poets, the recipient likely knows they're writing with some self-gratification in mind.
Think if an NFL playing said he scored a touchdown during a winning game for his wife on their anniversary.
Uh, no, you scored a touchdown because you love doing it and get paid buku bucks to do it.
The follow up gift better be a doozy, pal.
If I do write poems for people, I try to give them to people as surprises (i.e. not surrounding a birthday or popular holiday), since sometimes friends and family as topics come as a surprise to me anyway.
I can be pretty self-centered with my writing, as many of you have likely figured out. But at least now you know I'm trying to change that.
1 comment:
The present to my family is I don't send them the poems I write about them!
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