I believe that poets write about what is `beneath the skull`. That is potentially, poetry can strip away thay the veneer of every day coping and expose what thet see and feel with their `poetic` vision. The best poetry can be almost prophetic, illuminating, emotionally astute. If the poet is intent on exposing the `truth` of a situation , well the general situation of the world we live in, our entropic tendancy to always self-distruct, naturally self-centred and usually inconsistant of character; then true poetry is more likely to express the negative. In other words most people if they truly reflect on their life in this world know it is a bloody struggle. Poetry, therefore, can be a cathartic way of releasing the tension, reaching out to communicate these truths, and subseqently, hopefully, being affirmed.
So our lives are nasty, brutish and short, and the best a poet can do is write about that in a beautiful way which infects the reader with the writer's misery, or at least reminds them of their own suffering, and thus makes them feel better?
Read Stormy's stuff. Might cheer you up. worked for me.
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