When I finish a poetry workshop with a group of pupils, I normally go through the same schtick. I tell the students, who have all written their own poems, that I am a poet, and now they are too! My intention is to demonstrate that, regardless of their preconceptions, producing a poem need not be an arduous process – it can be fun!
I had a similar point in mind when I mischievously titled my first book ‘I Don’t Like Poetry’. I wanted, essentially, to write a book of poems for people who might think they don’t like poetry. Again, preconceptions are toyed with and, hopefully, refuted.
However, what if people come away from one of my workshops and think to themselves ‘well, I may have just written a poem, but I am still definitely not a poet’? What if they then go further and tell themselves that they don’t even want to be a poet? And what if, after reading one of my books or watching one of my performances, they still don’t like poetry? Have I then failed in my mission?
I really don’t think so. I am coming increasingly to believe that poetry is sort of incidental to my work. I happen to enjoy expressing myself using that medium, but I don’t really intend to create legions of fellow poets in my wake. It is probably quite unlikely that a large proportion of my students will go on to write their own poems on a regular basis, and it is unlikelier still that many of them will be inspired enough by me to pursue it as a profession.
The goal of what I do is instead to inspire my students to have confidence in and pursue their own interests, whatever those may be. Someone may well come away from meeting me and think ‘Josh is a poet, and if he can make that work, maybe I really can become a basketball player’. This, in my books, equals mission accomplished.
With this in mind, I think it might be time for me to reassess my schtick. I don’t think there is anything wrong with telling a group of students that they are all now poets, upon completion of one of my workshops, but I think I need to tweak the message slightly, and to add that they may choose not to be poets anymore after a while, but as long as they feel inspired in some way, in whatever way, then that is what I am there for. Poetry is the vehicle, but it may not be the destination.
