I will sound an unusual note of cautious optimism. As people read less and their attention spans shorten, they are likely to read fewer novels. That is a window of opportunity for poets, who tend to write short works. People are still going to want literature to give them what it has always given: a temporary escape to somewhere better, where things make sense; a glimpse of beauty, wisdom, humor, balance, or transcendence; something that does not appear to be manufactured to make a quick buck. If poets can just manage to connect with their potential audience, by writing in an understandable way about things that their audience can relate to, they can win back some of the audience that has been disaffected by poems that they can't understand or that seem to have nothing to do with their own lives.
Sherman Alexie has written that the largest part of the reading public right now consists of college-educated white women. And more people are going to college now than ever. Poets are never going to make much money from poetry or gain fame in the general public. But I think that the Internet is one way to gain back some of the audience that has been lost, and simply by giving people, for free, what they want.
Susan
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