Lost Indiffernce Of A Learned Critic, Poem by John Allen Richter

Poetry is not about what the critic prescribes for others. Poetry is not even what the poet himself thinks it is. Poetry is only what the reader finds. Period. Poetry is simply art, like love, subjective in every measure. I wrote this poem after hearing an esteemed member of an obscure literary committee drone on about what poetry should either be or not be about. Well la, dee, dah... And the reason I wrote it was for my soul mate, Emily Dickinson, who by every account was turned away by members of her own contemporary elitist poetical societies for not coloring within the their lines. Somehow I think they are all up in heaven now tending to her polishing, food preparation, and gardening - leaving her enough time to enjoy God's beauty once again in a manner befitting the greatest American poet who may have ever lived...