Ameer Kotecha

Why you should write poetry

It’s a creative pursuit with unique advantages (and you don’t even need to leave the pub)

  • From Spectator Life
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In a recent Low Life column, Jeremy Clarke referred to Edward Thomas and his writing of 16 poems in just 20 days. Similarly, practically all of the poems that made Wilfred Owen famous were composed in a few months (and when he was still in his twenties). It has been the same for many of our greatest poets. This prompts a few reactions: one is undoubtedly a sense of inferiority. But another is the thrill of possibility. It doesn’t matter if you’ve produced nothing of any literary merit in your life to date: a sudden burst of inspiration over a few weeks could be all you need.

This is something almost unique to creative pursuits – you won’t be making any breakthroughs in nuclear fission outside of your nine to five – and it is particularly true of poetry. I am not sure the same could even be said for music or painting. But poetry dangles in front of the talented amateur the tantalising prospect of creative redemption.

It is, I think, partly a function of time: while writing a book is surely only second to dieting in the popularity stakes for new year’s resolutions, few ever get round to really trying to write their long-planned magnum opus. It takes just too long to produce 400 pages that you know in your heart of hearts is unlikely to find a publisher or even be read by anyone beyond a dutiful spouse. Not that I would like to put anyone off the attempt. But consider poetry for a moment: one well-spent rainy Sunday afternoon is all you need to have a couple of poems under your belt. And while no one is going to thank you for dumping a first draft of your debut book manuscript in their lap as a gift, you can absolutely find inventive ways to shove poems under readers’ noses, while earning yourself brownie points in the process.

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