[Nick McRae]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

I think we can all come up with examples of both good and bad poems rooted in personal experience, as well as good and bad poems not rooted in personal experience. Where a poem falls on the "personal experience" spectrum, I would suggest, has little or nothing to do with whether the poem is any good. I agree, though, that writing from personal experience (by which I mean specific biographical or familial situations that many or most readers have not experienced themselves) has its own pitfalls. Perhaps it's no different than normal conversation. Sometimes we are fascinated by hearing another person tell us his experiences, sometimes we are bored. All the fun's in how you say a thing?

Yea, I guess my point was more a long the lines of the self being the starting point for poets. What people actually enjoy reading isn't always immediately obvious, and in some cases might not even be a concern as the poems are more akin to a journal.

To pick up a sense of what actually reads well takes some level of experience, and time. And in some cases the right inspiration just isn't there at all, if it can't be derived from one's own knowledge and experience.