Bringing Mae Flowers

There’s a man at the market who holds a yellow sign.

It says, “Poet for hire” in big black letters. Every week I see this man, sitting quietly while hundreds of people swarm around the city-park, and I wonder if anyone has taken him up on his offer. I think that’s what inspired this month’s obsession with poetry. Specifically, what makes a good poem and what makes a poet.

The poet at the market is confident in his title.

He reminds me of a troubadour, willing to write and perform for pay. Meanwhile, I lack of confidence in my own poetic prowess. I constantly worry that why metaphors are too weak, or my phrasing is forced. I don’t believe I am good enough to take the title of “poet” but maybe I should. Maybe I should make wear my own sign proudly, because after reading some of the work being published by big-5 publishers I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m either a better poet than I thought, or I have no idea what good poetry is.

I did what anyone under 50 would do, and I asked the internet.

I can’t speak for the Market Troubadour’s work, but I can confidently say that I’m sorely disappointed in the state of popular, contemporary poetry. I was also relieved to find that I was not alone in that disappointment. Instagram and TikTok poets have been publishing in mass at astonishing speed. While their books are taking the spotlight in marketing campaigns, and the books are selling like icy lemonade on a summer day. The are loudly and proudly branded as poets, but the reviewers don’t agree. In fact, the general consensus among literary nerds like me is that these books aren’t poetry.

They weren’t all bad, they were just lacking.

Many of these books had beautiful lines,and intriguing thoughts, but they were just that- lines and thoughts. They may have been written in a vaguely poetic format, but they lacked the careful attention to rhyme, meter, and meaning that marks most poems. The more scholarly critics were able to explain the intricacies of these distinctions, but most people can feel the difference.

I’m both more hopeful, and more cynical.

I’ve been applying every critique and criticism I could find about poems and poetry and applying them to my own writing. While I can confidently say that my own writing is more “poetic” than Instagram Poetry (at least, according to the loose criteria set by the internet), I cannot definitively say it’s good. Most people can identify a bad poem the same way that most people can hear a sour note in a song. But articulating what makes a poem or a song good or bad is harder. Even if it is good, does it matter? As it was clearly demonstrated by the “poetry” books in question, literary mastery isn’t a consideration when it comes to publishing. It’s all about marketability.

And that brings me back to the marketplace poet.

He doesn’t question who he is (at least not out loud). He is confident in his identity as a poet. I’m still not sure what makes a poem or a poet. Anyone can call what they write “poetry”, which means that anyone can be a “poet”. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Why not claim the title for yourself? I may be disappointed that popular publications aren’t up to my standards, or that money is the deciding factor in most of the industry. But, I do still firmly believe that words are worth sharing. So maybe I should should learn from the modern Troubadour and stop worrying about it.