Misanthropic Poetica

In the last 3 or 4 weeks I have been convinced to put together a manuscript of my poetry to try to get it published. I have struggled with the idea for a long time with the usual questions one might ask oneself regarding putting together such a thing: Is my stuff any good? Who would want to publish it? What is the point of it? I mean, do I need other people to read my work? Do I really feel the need to get rejected over and over again and possible never get a bite?

Tough questions when your work is at stake. Of course, I should mention that its not as if I think my work is the greatest stuff ever inked. Heck, friends who I have the uptmost respect for have gently told me as much. The few publication credits I have are all poems I wouldn't choose to publish myself! But the fact is, there is alot of poetry out there I can't stand that has made its mark, so why not me? Critics of my work say it is too sophmoric, too accessable, and not up to the standard of what "real poetry" is. I won't argue. What do I know...I wrote it. But, I will say that my work is purposefully accessable. Maybe I read too much Taoist and Zen poetry in my life to get away from the simple. Truth and simplicity...what more can a poet aspire toward?

Anyway, with that in mind, I remembered my favorite lines of Moliere's "The Misanthrope". Alceste, while criticizing Oronte's horrible sonnet tells him, "Surely you're under no necessity to compose;/Why you would wish to publish, heaven knows./There's no excuse for printing tedious rot/Unless one writes for bread, as you do not./Resist tempatation, then, I beg of you;/Conceal your pastimes from public view." (Act I, Scene II, lines 174-179).

Why dear Alceste? Why indeed!