Writing for an audience?

[Repressedsoul]

We all write about things that get us down from time to time. As an author or poet it's difficult not to let yourself be governed by your own emotion. I'm speaking for myself here, but I try and write universally, there's got to be something that pulls on someone's heart strings when you compose a poem? If you write about making a jacket potato, it's hardly going to touch a wider audience! What are your opinions?

Most poeple's poetry I've read recently have been about depression, love, nature, things that others are universally passionate about. But it's always nice to put your own personal approach on these lines?

[ChrisG]

Well I concur to the extent that no...people probably shouldn't be writing about a jacket potato. Although there are things like the famous "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams. Not my thing, but obviously a lot of people love or have loved it.

I don't think one's work always has to pull at someone else's heartstrings though. In many cases, if it means something to you, that is enough. They can pick up on the passion and the skill in your own expression, and that shines through. Whether the work moves them to some greater end is often helpful in liking a piece, in moving a piece beyond merely a good read to a lasting expression, but not a necessity with the poetic I think. Nothing's going to touch everyone after all - we all have different experiences and different feelings.

As for the topics you listed out - well, that's a lot of poetry right there. Very common themes. We write about those things that touch us most deeply and spur us to expression. That can mean the extremes of the heart or the beauty of an image. Politics or art. Your own personal approach on these discourses is of course a must...otherwise it's not your poetry. It's just your words put to someone else's tune. Probably one of the reasons I write so much bloody freeverse!

[willowwishfree]

I write for myself, or a very specific audience (generally one person, that the poem is for). It's only been in recent years that I even let anyone else read my personal work, and only the past few weeks that I've been posting it in a public format where anybody can look at it. For me at least, poetry is a very personal thing... I write about myself, about how I feel or what's been happening to me at the moment... Something that struck my imagination, or made the words bump along inside my head... Doesn't really matter if it strikes a chord with someone else. I wrote it for my own reasons, and that's enough for me.