how much poetry do you buy?

Uh, ...so i read a lot about people wanting to be published and yada yada and it got me thinking and wondering about how much poetry folks on this site actually buy. A volume of poetry a week, a day, you have rooms full of poetry books that you pore over every day? Maybe a whole separate personal library full of every major work by every poet and then all of the sub poets locally that vend their works in the flea markets and such?

How much money do you actually spend buying poetry a year?

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

I dont buy too much poetry. I use my library card often, and if I find a book or poet I really like I may go buy it or some other work from that poet to add to my private collection. Basically of the one's I buy you could say is my 'favorites list'.

-Spence

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

same I have a volume of Yeats, Shakespeare, longfellow, Poe, and Morrison, and Lao Zu, but thats about it.

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

I have a bit of poetry, but nothing compared to other genres. While published poetry can be fantastic, I like the authors that aren't published the best. They're the ones that need their stories read. If someone finds a particular poem too dark for society to read, they won't publish it, and sometimes it's the dark poetry that has the deepest meaning. Authors that haven't been published aren't reaping in the profits as published ones might.

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightcourier

Uh, ...so i read a lot about people wanting to be published and yada yada and it got me thinking and wondering about how much poetry folks on this site actually buy. A volume of poetry a week, a day, you have rooms full of poetry books that you pore over every day? Maybe a whole separate personal library full of every major work by every poet and then all of the sub poets locally that vend their works in the flea markets and such?

How much money do you actually spend buying poetry a year?

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

I do have ten or twelve volumes of poetry; mostly anthologies by various poets but I have some volumes strictly devoted to certain poets; Shelley, Poe, Shakespeare, Byron off the top of my head. But then again, I collect books because one day I want a room devoted to them (stopping just shy of saying "library" because a "library" in a very unassuming home seems pretentious). Having said that, poetry makes up a mere fraction of what I have assembled. But I am hardly prolific so I think it would take me a lifetime to assemble enough of my own work to have enough to weed through to make a selection to publish so I won't lose much sleep over it.

Peace.

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

In our home we have about six bookshelves full of books from fiction to nonfiction, gardening books, philosophy, psychology etc. The last few books I purchased were indian myth stories and history of indian tribes in Wisconsin, after visiting crazy Horse and Apostle islands this past week. I also found a recording of poetry that i really liked and a book by Robert bly Last month. It varies, but I spend probably about fifty bucks a year or so on poetry. I have about four shelves of poetry.

I think i like to access books and authors that i like and will read snippets from different books before I go to bed until i have ten or fifteen cluttering up my nightstand. Than I will put them all back into the bookshelves and start pulling out again.

Poetry is one of those things that i enjoy reading before I go to bed because it gets my mind all worked up and sometimes creates some interesting dreams, or foments a work or two from the thoughts generated.

I do like a lot of the work i have found here on this site. There are a lot of creative writers out there that have interesting views. I'm disappointed that some of them haven't gathered a collection to sell.

But seriously, considering the amount of time I have to read and the sheer number of excellent writers, I would only dibble and dabble in any books of poetry that i purchased.

Right now, i am dibbling with whitman, Bly, Louis Jenkins, a Haiku poet collection and Neruda.

Everyone seems to write poetry, but a handful or more actually read and digest poetry in an ongoing literary consumptive manner. Like sodas or large plates of tacos. lol

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

I just bought some poetry today, the really old stuff ...Ogden Nash, Ralph Waldo Emerson - old books from early 1900's. I read a lot of the famous poets of yesteryear and I love to be inspired by looking at the collection upon my shelves.

Upon occasion I will look on the tables at Barnes and Noble or Booksamillion and pick up "A Treasury of" or "The An Anthology of Modern Day Poets" etc. My collecting and yearning is very sporadic and inconsistent. I often wonder as to if I were to ever publish - who would be the audience?

However I write for the joy of it and I have enough family and friends that read me and encourage me so I never stop overflowing, as I know many do. I can say that with all the talent that I have read on this site, I would buy and cherish a book comprised of my favorite exceptional authors who often share the most incredible pieces that I have read (old or new).

Thank you, all my new and (many) close - FRIENDS.

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

lightcourier
a very interesting point, until here recently I never have, only because of the library.
Now I search for antique books of poets, not new ones.
I was talking about this in another forum.
I believe this website after this year maybe two will get bigger.
I also think a good idea is to do a compilation book, not just contest winners, but like a monthly release book on a big vast majority would work, variety is very good.
Maybe a magizine OP monthly, interviews and wot not, it can be done.
Plus with journalists out work, we can need their assitance here.
Just ideas, but I believe the poets future is going to get better.
But the point you made summs it up.
Creative ideas can get alot of us, entertaining the masses.

John E WordSlinger

Last edited by WordSlinger 06-18-2009 at 02:10:35 PM

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

I love buying poetry books. Especially in used book stores, estate sales, tag sales. I have poetry of newer poets but I feel akin to the Old English, Victorian and early American poets. Has anyone read Beowulf? Now that's an epic poem. How about Chaucer and some of his bawdy poems. I really like Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Edgar Allen Poe, William Cullen Bryant, Robert Browning, Langston Hughes,Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath, Rod McKuen, Theodore Roethke, Tennyson, Longfellow, Kipling, Robert Louis Stevensen, Whitmnan, Wordsworth and many many more. I buy poetry books about every 1-2 months, many used at a good price. I also by chapbooks that fellow poets self-publish. I have 2 of my own, and when I read publicly I pitch them. They are fairly inexpensive to make and you can sell them for 4-5 dollars. Anyhow yes I buy and read poetry as a pastime. It inspires me!
Ginga

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

I have a library in my home and a garage full of books. I would say more than half were books of poetry. I search for originals, signed volumes and first edition books. I have spent upwards of $700 on one of my favorite poets. When I find one I like, I want to read it over and over again and feel the words with my hand. Words have a power all their own... When I find a poet that touches me with their words in way that becomes intimate I will buy.

Re: how much poetry do you buy?

Though i minored in English lit (wow), RHPeat (the ultimate master of critique) has me thinking I need to do a bit more thinking about poetry structure and form etc (no really?) So I did what a bibliophile should never do, which is walk into a bookstore just to look.

I came out with a couple of nice looking books on poetry critiquing and structure...vowing to read these to get a better handle on poetry before I buy another selection of poetry...and then I bought a book of haiku to augment my other one that is tattered and faded. (ahh who critiques haiku anyway) and about four other books.

Re: Re: how much poetry do you buy?

Last edited by WordSlinger 07-05-2009 at 09:06:39 PM