Comments on: Relative Success, Relative Failure: Life as a Poet

By: Jeannine Hall Gailey

Jeannine Hall Gailey — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:00:21 +0000

Thanks for all your responses.
The weird thing is, I never really get discouraged from writing poetry. Though I try to be realistic about it. I’m much happier as a writer (though poorer) than I was as a corporate techie (though I’m still a geek – you can’t get rid of that!)
And I agree, the real fun of poetry is in the writing – and then someone else reading it!

By: Crafty Green Poet

Crafty Green Poet — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 07:01:12 +0000

Excellent post, it’s an interesting question. I agree with Howie Good that its about the quality of the work. For me as well though, success is the fact that my blog is popular, I’ve had one of my poems made into a short film and I’ve worked on collaborations with a musician, setting some of my poems to music. Financially of course I’m not at all successful, but few poets are. (Interestingly my first (self published) chapbook quickly made a good amount of money for a charity, my second (published by a publisher) finds me in the situation of not even having made back the money I spent on cheap copies to sell to people, because most people go straight to the publisher for their copies…

By: Radish King

Radish King — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:01:48 +0000

I’m with Martha. To me success means to continue writing. Period. I know too many poets who give up. As long as I’m not that poet then I’m a success. Everything else falls away quickly. Though I’m one of those who never expected to make money at it.

By: Karen J. Weyant

Karen J. Weyant — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:53:06 +0000

I enjoyed reading this posting — like Martha, I spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff and getting caught up with “old school” poets who believe that a poet can’t possibly be any good if he or she is teaching at a community college (I am paraphrasing a remark made towards me!)

In my situation, I believe that success should be getting my students to read and enjoy poetry and teaching myself to be a better poet (and not to be discouraged!) I think success should be measured differently in different situations.

By: Martha Silano

Martha Silano — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:51:56 +0000

I would have enjoyed being a fly on the wall of your meeting of the minds re: poet success. I spend too much time thinking about this stuff, and it doesn’t get me anywhere but going in circles. I feel best (most famous!) as a writer when I am sitting in my car scribbling out a new draft. I don’t care, while I am in the act of writing, whether anyone will read the poem, whether it will be published, whether someone will click “like” next to it. All I care about is the next line, getting the poem spill out onto the page…and the excitement of knowing I have a poem to work on for the next few weeks or months…

By: Gabriel Gadfly

Gabriel Gadfly — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 22:05:09 +0000

I've been publishing my poetry on my website for about two years now, so I think my perspective of success as a poet is probably a little different than the poet who pursues traditional publication venues.

For me, success is knowing that in May 2011, over 100,000 people read poems on my website. One of those poems alone has been liked 788 times on Facebook. Another poem was reblogged on Tumblr 39 times within a few hours of going live on my website.

My first book hasn't even hit shelves yet.

By: Howie Good

Howie Good — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:42:53 +0000

It's about the work. Success is related to the quality of the work, not to the work's reception. Unless, of course, one adopts external (and often corrupt) criteria.

You know what Wm James called "success," don't you? "The bitch goddess."

Let the definition of success as fame or book sales or both go. It isn't easy to do, but anything less leads only to frustration and despair.

By: The Emotional Orphan

The Emotional Orphan — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:04:46 +0000

I constantly struggle with the meaning of, and what measure should be called “success”. I appreciate the article and food for thought. Be well… Jack