Hi Jonathan, I truly like this idea of micro poetry writing, and this re-focus of what poetry might be for. Bravo! And your typewriter sounds like a memorable creature!
Great read. My poetry often lands on the page through some kind of expulsive catharsis, I don’t give too much thought as to how it lands with others — perhaps this is part of the craft I should develop!
Thanks for this. I'm glad to learn that I too have been tilting the axis of poetry for some time with my single reader audience, the one I can count on to read everything and give me the best feedback. I have been feeling guilty about not being bothered enough to want want to 'get my poems out there', published in reviews and so on, though I am published in various places, and have put it down to old-age hermitism and laziness. So thank you once again.
As a sneaky rider to this, I will add that I have long been convinced that while our poetry may be inherently worth the read, the 'business' of being published is a middle class venture. You have to have a source of income that renders you independent enough to be able to forego income from that poetry.
Thanks, Jonathan. I enjoyed reading your insights (again). I think often some of the best ‘public’ poems are written with one person in mind. The poet just happened to send it out into the world.
I very much enjoyed this, Jonathan! Your typewriter is also in sympathy, I think.
I like writing the occasional poem for local collaborations with an artist (they're pretty much bound to read it and respond). Then we all gather for tea and cake in a draughty gallery somewhere in the rain in Mid Wales, and spend a fulfilling afternoon.
We agree – but we suspect this is already how most poetry *is* written and read: texted to a lover, scribbled in a mother's day card from a prison cell, written in a teenager's 'private' journal to be read by their best friend, etc.
Jonathan, thank you very much for this - greatly appreciated. It resonated with some of my own thoughts around the question of why we write - especially poetry. Some of my poems are in a file clearly marked "For an audience of one". They are mostly love poems, so in fact strictly speaking are for an audience of two - a communication between us.
Why do I write poetry and what do I most enjoy about the creative process? Contrary to what people may think, I do not write so that I have something to perform, to offer to audiences and readers.
The greatest joy is that initial creative moment, that spark - the inner ecstatic moment. Everything else is afterglow.
Poetic thoughts are proof positive that I am alive. It's how I process life.
Thank you for this reminder. I lost my beloved Olivetti Lexicon 80 in a move many years ago and didn't replace it. It's humbling and appropriate to have to start again to type a poem because of a mistake. I might find another typewriter this year and concentrate on personal poems. It could remind me of the love that poetry deserves. Though as I'm from Widnes the wax seal is probably going too far!
Have you read Ian McEwan's novel, 'What We Can Know' - about a poem written for one reader? Not that I'd want , for a moment, to suggest you are anything like the guy who wrote that ......
Hi Jonathan, I truly like this idea of micro poetry writing, and this re-focus of what poetry might be for. Bravo! And your typewriter sounds like a memorable creature!
Great read. My poetry often lands on the page through some kind of expulsive catharsis, I don’t give too much thought as to how it lands with others — perhaps this is part of the craft I should develop!
Thanks for this. I'm glad to learn that I too have been tilting the axis of poetry for some time with my single reader audience, the one I can count on to read everything and give me the best feedback. I have been feeling guilty about not being bothered enough to want want to 'get my poems out there', published in reviews and so on, though I am published in various places, and have put it down to old-age hermitism and laziness. So thank you once again.
As a sneaky rider to this, I will add that I have long been convinced that while our poetry may be inherently worth the read, the 'business' of being published is a middle class venture. You have to have a source of income that renders you independent enough to be able to forego income from that poetry.
Cheers for 2026!
Thanks, Jonathan. I enjoyed reading your insights (again). I think often some of the best ‘public’ poems are written with one person in mind. The poet just happened to send it out into the world.
I very much enjoyed this, Jonathan! Your typewriter is also in sympathy, I think.
I like writing the occasional poem for local collaborations with an artist (they're pretty much bound to read it and respond). Then we all gather for tea and cake in a draughty gallery somewhere in the rain in Mid Wales, and spend a fulfilling afternoon.
We agree – but we suspect this is already how most poetry *is* written and read: texted to a lover, scribbled in a mother's day card from a prison cell, written in a teenager's 'private' journal to be read by their best friend, etc.
Jonathan, thank you very much for this - greatly appreciated. It resonated with some of my own thoughts around the question of why we write - especially poetry. Some of my poems are in a file clearly marked "For an audience of one". They are mostly love poems, so in fact strictly speaking are for an audience of two - a communication between us.
Why do I write poetry and what do I most enjoy about the creative process? Contrary to what people may think, I do not write so that I have something to perform, to offer to audiences and readers.
The greatest joy is that initial creative moment, that spark - the inner ecstatic moment. Everything else is afterglow.
Poetic thoughts are proof positive that I am alive. It's how I process life.
Thanks again for a provactive piece.
Great read! Thank you.
Thank you for this reminder. I lost my beloved Olivetti Lexicon 80 in a move many years ago and didn't replace it. It's humbling and appropriate to have to start again to type a poem because of a mistake. I might find another typewriter this year and concentrate on personal poems. It could remind me of the love that poetry deserves. Though as I'm from Widnes the wax seal is probably going too far!
Have you read Ian McEwan's novel, 'What We Can Know' - about a poem written for one reader? Not that I'd want , for a moment, to suggest you are anything like the guy who wrote that ......
Thank you, Jonathan. Thought-provoking.