Don't run away, it's only poetry.

It is unfortunate that so many people are repelled by the mere mention of poetry. Even some who are avid readers of fiction start looking for the exits when confronted with the prospect of a poem. Perhaps poetry should be called something else, like Wordables or Verse Candy. Poets like Ginsburg (Reality Sandwiches) and O'Hara (Lunch Poems) have certainly tried to serve up accessibly bite-sized portions of verse. Yet there remains, even in my mind, the entrenched image of the "poet": the underfed, misunderstood, long-suffering, sometimes angry purveyor of some agenda personal or public. Or perhaps worse, the academic, mummified in tweed, whose sociocultural and literary references walk upon stilts so as to be unsullied by the comprehension of the audience below. Tho thee are caricatures, they are persistent weevils, dug deep in the mind. Fortunately, and I'm not being sarcastic, there is the Internet, and sites like Youtube, where almost any poet can gain at least some leverage toward overturning these stereotypes, provided they choose to do that, rather than to reinforce them. After all, it is not t its root competition, but creation. So as I get old and turn slowly to sod, I hope for the best--an overthrow of the simplistic, the monomaniacal, and the lofty--and look forward to whatever the poetry of the future holds. Go ahead, shock and inspire me.