[Nick McRae]

Originally Posted by E. Shaun Russell

None of those things are really objective measures, and by that same token, none really get into what makes poetry (indeed, art) meaningful...which is to say the personal connection.

The bolded gets to the heart of it, IMO.

Poetry and literature are interesting because they're artforms, but with an emphasis on language. And knowing that, it's worthwhile recognizing that linguistic skill is probably one of the central, if not the central, visceral marker we use to measure the intellect and character of other people.

So you get this odd situation in the poetry world where we're trying to produce worthwhile art, but at the same time we often use that art to judge and compete. It misses the point of the written word entirely.

If you can read the scribblings of an inexperienced twenty-something, and think to yourself - this is a bunch of dross - then there's an element of the written word that you're not seeing. To me, the core of poetry is about expression. I truly believe that every fragment of the written word has value. But if you're always trying to measure it in terms of quality, you're very likely to miss that.