This is an idea I've battled with for the last few months of writing poetry. Does poetry have to have a greater meaning or purpose? Does it need to be deep, introspective or even moralistic? I always think about this in reference to nonsense poems where there isn't more to the poem than just enjoying the rhyme or rhythm or nonsense of it and how you don't see too much of it anymore (though if it is there please direct me).
Loads of poems delve into sociopolitical issues, gender, sexuality, race all very important issues that NEED to be spoken about and it always makes me wonder if I should maybe write more on those subjects. I just haven't found a genuine way to do that. I'm wondering if anyone has had the same sort of experience or your relationships with poetry and how you view it.
My justification is that if you look at tonnes of art there isn't as much of a push for artist to create meaningful, introspective or moralistic art (well not on online spaces for the most part. There were definitely periods in art history where religious art with themes supporting biblical teachings was championed and nowadays art delves into the topics I listed in the second paragraph). Tonnes of art is pretty for pretty's sake so does poetry have to be any different?
Heya Jay, if you haven't already, I'd recommend giving some of the other threads in the 'Poetry Discussions' a read in regards to your question! Particularly the ones critiquing insta-poetry because the question of what poetry 'needs' to be is brought up very often. We have gone back and forth and forth and back discussing our thoughts and feelings on this :P
In a nutshell, my personal opinion is that if a poem is very interesting and well written/expressed, it's good. By good, I mean anything from incredibly original to in-depth and thought-provoking, emotive, resonating, clever, fun, expressive, unique in imagery and expression, and maybe even shocking or funny. Bottom line is, a poem should have some kind of impact on the reader that changes them ever-so-slightly after they have read it.
But I feel a bit obliged to address this part of your post: Loads of poems delve into sociopolitical issues, gender, sexuality, race all very important issues that NEED to be spoken about and it always makes me wonder if I should maybe write more on those subjects.
...as a woman, and an ethnic one at that, may I just say: don't fall for it.
I don't mean that too literally- of course these are extremely important topics we shouldn't be discouraging anyone to write on, and if you do want to write on these topics without societal pressure- then go for it! Show us something new, or 'look deeper' behind these issues, as Adam discussed above. But when sociopolitical issues and gender/sexuality, etc. is all we are expected to write on (especially if it personally effects us (i.e. me being a woman and ethnic)), it becomes problematic on its own (we go quite deep into this very topic in Adam's post 'What happened to poetry?', or it was called something very similar. I think you'll find all our discourse very insightful. It was a fun thread to participate in, lol, and everyone had great things to contribute. Definitely worth a read!
Apologies if this does come across a bit vague, but I hope it answers your question somewhat!