Michael Sharkey: Professional Standards in Poetry

Professionalism in poetry operates in and across boundaries of genre & sub-genre. For non-poets, poetry can appear a frivolous activity, a self-indulgence, an esoteric in-game, an anachronism or a torment they suffered at school (‘Teacher knows the meaning, now guess what it is’). Promoting poetry as a kind of Facebook activity doesn’t do justice to all the things poetry can be beyond such stereotypes. Rather than assume one form of elite poetry exists, I want to argue for clear demarcation (and promotion) of the separate genres and for acknowledgment of professionalism in each.