I'll add another point then give it a few days.
I'm now also of the view that most of us don't really know how to appreciate art. The common line of thinking is that poetry is underappreciated, but I think it's more the case that many of us are just incapable of seeing the beauty in it. From this perspective, those who can appreciate the written word are privileged, while those who can't are missing out.
Those who've appreciated my work the most were universally other poets, while those who weren't poets didn't really know how to read into my writing or give weak areas the benefit of the doubt. For the poets, some of my pieces were life changing, for the non-poets, some of it was too unfamiliar and foreign. Outside of their comfort zone.
This is why when we shift over to an area like popular music, it's generally lyrics and melodies with obvious mass appeal that make money. Anything that approaches daring is going to divide people out of the gate. So if we're talking poetry with themes that are far beyond everyday experience, the audience is narrow by definition.
Once I hit this realization I pretty much gave up advertising my work in any way, beyond to other poets, and stopped selling my book. When I was alone with my writing I didn't think twice about it, but as soon as I had an audience I realized that some found the themes a little too heavy. I ended up not wanting some people I knew to read it.
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