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Blogs by Robert F Martin
the Issue of Poetry being Taught 4/7/2006 12:37:04 PM
My stance on poetry being taught intellectually/scholastically, as opposed to being "discovered." Poetry being taught in school has been an issue for me ever since I had to write it in school. To me, true, beautiful poetry, comes from the Heart, or the Soul, not the mind. Most of the time, at least for me, I was driven to write poetry from my mind when I wrote a poem for a school assignment, and they were never that good, when I could write anything at all.
In America at least, it seems like there's almost an overemphasis on the idea that anyone can do anything, and be anyone. This may be true for some things, infact it is true for everything, but that does not mean that such techniques should be used to "help" people discover such a talent. Instead, and this is just my opinion, parents, and other people close to children, should encourage them to experiment in poetry writing, and other arts. We have blinded ourselves with the idea that anyone can be anything, and that anything can be taught. This is, unfortunately, not the truth. While poetry can be taught to a certain extent, but for someone to be a truly powerful poet, they must be in touch with their Heart and Soul, which is not necessarily the case with everyone.
