as many people know, darkforum poets have been the butt of many member's jokes throughout the site, there has been many a heated discussion questioning the validity of the quality of words here. i thought i'd start a discussion on why those views persist.


my opinion is that there are a good number of writers here, as well as a ridiculous number of bad. i'd say the majority of writers here are people that, in a journal/diary type form, express day to day feelings. the problem with that is that they are usually written quite literally, and most often resemble countless other's words, the teen angst angle is usually the most popular. and there's nothing really wrong with that, poetry is supposed to be a means of expression. but people often get very pretentious when it comes to any form of art, and that's most probably the problem; whether you choose to look at poetry as an art form, or as a way of simple expression. i could go on and on, but i'll leave that as something to start with.

your thoughts?