TYPES OF POETRY
No, 'types of poetry' does not refer to homework exercises, but to the many schools of poetry that exist today, each with their different aspirations and career paths. The broadest grouping is into professionals and amateurs, but even professional poets disagree as to what is or should be good poetry, and make strenuous efforts to belong to the right movement. You can only appreciate such coterie politics by jumping into the swim of events — writing, editing, reviewing — but you will need eventually to declare for one or other of the current types of poetry, and modify your output accordingly. Your pattern of acceptances will be a guide, but also helpful will be extensive reading, particularly the critical work of the 'enemy camp'.
Types of Poetry: Professional
Many dream of the time when they can really get down to writing, without the need to put food on the table and create a name for themselves in their day-to-day jobs and local community. Why not become a professional, a career poet, turning out collections regularly from prestigious presses, and taking a recognized part in conferences, courses and workshops?
Some hundreds of poets do that, becoming writers in residence at universities, or accredited workshop conveners at writing colleges or community centres. Poetry was, is, and always will be an an essential part of their lives, whatever the cost, however financially or socially unrewarding. They spend their last penny on poetry collections, and can remember precisely when they encountered an author later important to them.
Note the unquenchable interest, contacts and background. Professional poets make careers for themselves in one or more of the following ways:
1. Take a Master of Fine Arts degree, and become a writer in residence etc. at some recognized university or college of further education.
2. Follow a university English course by a Ph.D., but spend much of their time writing and associating with poets, promoting their work and being promoted in turn.
3. Become officers of poetry institutions, again hobnobbing with poets and becoming part of the publicity machine.
4. Teach in an English faculty, many of which run a magazine publishing certain types of poetry and their important names.
5. Work in a publishing house, particularly those few that bring out poetry collections or literary novels.
6. Join the poetry performing circuit, building up a loyal public and issuing collections of their popular numbers.
Of course there are dangers. One is the need to publish collections at regular intervals, regardless of quality, simply to prove credentials. Another is the ease with which literary activities can substitute for the real thing, which is writing. Everything is easier than writing poetry, or poetry that's any good, and perhaps only the most uncompromising (and sometimes difficult) characters survive the temptation.
Types of Poetry: Amateurs
But perhaps you're not a career poet at all, but an amateur in the best sense of the word, who has produced a substantial body of work. How do you get your precious lifeblood published?
1. You're earned the money to self publish at no cost spared. You find a reputable publisher, talk to local bookstores and place your work on Amazon Books.
2. You don't have the $1,000 + needed to 'publish and be damned'. Your options:
1. Join a local poetry group and publish in their occasional anthology.
2. Submit to the many ezines springing up on the Internet, and disappearing as fast again.
3. Submit to one of the long-established small poetry or literary magazines.
4. Self-publish an anthology of your work: traditional or print-on-demand.
5. Run your own magazine or literary website.