What Makes a Poet Great?

Sitting in Fastig-Tipton’s beautiful facility in Saratoga Springs, New York, at the annual National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony, I listened to the greats among the greatest trainers, jockeys and owners. I discovered that greatness is achieved in the very same way by those who aspire to it whether they are writing poetry or racing horses.

Garro on Greatness–

1.  Greatness is not a moment, but many moments of greatness of never being satisfied that begins in early childhood with those who provided inspiration or at least did not get in the way.

2.  The greats have the ability to work through challenges and not screw up.

3.  The greats possess the motivation of the force of hard work to bring out the best in themselves.

4.  Mere talent is not enough. The greats possess talent, toughness and tenacity with enough endurance to achieve success, however long it takes.

5. Most of all, the greats have a desire to say about their lives at the end of their days, “Well done!”

Life is a horse race. At any given moment or second, anything can happen. Those who have prepared are ready to deal with it.

Poets Need a Poetry Group

For over twenty years, I have run a writing group. Currently, I run the Saratoga Poetry Focus Group, which meets every third Wednesday from nine to noon with from four to six poets who get from 30 to 45 minutes each to read their poems, hear their poems read to them and get a round table commentary about what works and suggestions for improvements.

We met today with four poets for three hours and I heard really good poetry from three good poets and got feedback on my own poetry. Currently, I am working on five full books of poetry, so I asked for just numbers 1-5 for a big stack of my poems that I read only once while the group had copies in front of them. 5 means finished, 4 almost finished, 3 needs work, 2 needs a lot of work, and 1 is crap that does not deserve my time.

Why do poets need a poetry group? Because poets need feedback on the poems they are writing to understand how others perceive them. While writing in a vacuum may have worked for Emily Dickinson, know that she chose her reclusive life.

Not a groupie? Don’t want to join a regular group? Then, be brave enough to get yourself out to open microphone  poetry readings and learn what poems work for people by assessing their reactions when you read your poetry.