[Quiet Man Cometh]

I agree that that's an oversimplification, but the notion of poetic circles exist everywhere, even if it's just a group of friends that like to write in a given style, or the audience that frequents a particular cafe for poetry readings.

I wouldn't be surprised if the idea of a poetry circle is what keeps many magazines going. Magazines decided what topics they want to focus on what poetry they want to see. In many places, form poetry is out as something archaic and if one wants to read or publish form poetry they'll need to find another magazine or group of mags that likes the stuff. I'm the past there might have been arguments on the difference of value from one poet type to another, but nowadays I'm thinking it might roll more along the lines of poetic favouritism.

I'm not sure that poetry that focuses on the inward emotions of the author has ever been a collective group. I imagine it's something every author does at some point. With that style of poetry, the topic will always remain the same at it's core. It will be the presentation that defines it. I have no shortage of it, and I imagine that every other poet has at least one poem where the speaker is themself.

According to the interview with Steven Erikson, personal inserts into art are hard to avoid if not impossible, and I agree with that, but I figure its' the degree to which the author lets their personality/biography/philosophy etc. dictate the poem that determines which school that peom will end up in. Keep it minimum and you likely have a poem that has implications beyond the writer that an outside audience can relate too; too much and you have a diary entry that may be cathartic for the writer but has little relevance beyond a few, like minded readers.

Aside, if you aren't writing a poem for someome, why are you writing it? When you talk about the "collegiate school" writing for each other, are you referring specifically to the speficic people within that group, or do think there's some intent to share those poems with a greater audience of like minded people?

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