When I write poetry, for whom am I writing? Who is my intended audience?

This is a question I have only recently started asking myself. Perhaps it is different for novelists, or storywriters, or memoirists. Perhaps it is different if you seek to earn a living from your writing; but my answer, at least until a few weeks ago, would have been in the first instance I write for myself. I need to translate thoughts, feelings, memories, impressions, imaginings,  experiences, observations, into words and structures, driven partly, I think, by a compulsion to generate some sort of order and meaning out of chaos and confusion.

It continues to be a pleasant surprise when others read my poetry and relate to it in some way. My prime motivation for writing, however, is not a desire to be read.

The urge to write for myself is one reason why I almost never enter writing competitions, or submit to themed issues, unless the theme happens to connect closely with what I’m currently working on. Competitions and themes carry a weight of expectation that becomes superimposed on any potential poem I may write with the intention to submit. For me, this has the effect of constriction rather than constraint, forcing the poem into a space it may not naturally want to occupy. 

Of late there has been lively discussion in poetry circles about the essential characteristics of  poetic forms, in particular of the sonnet. Is a sonnet defined by fourteen lines? The volta? Metre? Rhyme scheme? By all of these attributes, or none? I have no intention of entering this debate myself: instead, I refer you to two excellent podcasts on the topic, The Poetry Space (episode 52) with Katie Dozier and Timothy Green, and The Penteract Podcast (series 3, episode 5) with Anthony Etherin and Pedro Poitevin (which also includes Poitevin reading his extraordinary sonnet found in the genome of a cat).  

What emerges from discussions on the sonnet and other forms is that definitions are subjective. A traditionalist may expect a sonnet to adhere to the structures we associate with Shakespeare or Petrarch, while an avant-garde poet may want to challenge convention  by writing, for example, a sonnet with more than fourteen lines, or with highly irregular line lengths, or a non-verbal or asemic sonnet. Disagreement arises when there is a disconnect between the intention of the poet and the expectation of the audience.

On a panel chaired by Rhoda Molife at the British Zimbabwe Society’s 2024 Zimbabwean Book Festival, Rudo Manyere and Masimba Musodza described the burden of expectation faced by contemporary Zimbabwean and African writers. As Musodza noted, “If you’re black you’re only supposed to write about certain subjects, and only from a certain angle.” However, the perception that in African literature “there has to be a struggle” is, Manyere observed, gradually changing. New voices are writing in a range of genres so that African literature is “no longer only based on pain, suffering and poverty”. You can watch the full video recording of this thoughtful and interesting panel discussion here. 

In recent weeks I have myself ventured into a new genre, writing poems with a very specific constraint for an audience of one. At the beginning of every week my grandchild is given a list of ten spelling words to learn for a Friday test. This is a chore. My grandchild enjoys reading but is not enthused by practising how to write out the words with the correct spelling. In an attempt to make the learning process more interesting, I have been constructing poems that contain all the words on the weekly spelling list. I’ve sought to incorporate characteristic elements of children’s poetry: strong rhythm and rhyme scheme, a lively narrative and plenty of visual interest using stock images, emojis, font and colour. Humour and surprise are important too. Characters, events, and vocabulary are all chosen specifically to appeal to my solitary reader.

This is not my natural genre! However, the poems are fun to write, and have certainly given me insight into the craftsmanship required to create good children’s poetry. Most importantly, my audience of one has been appreciative of my efforts. My grandchild enjoys the poems, reading and rereading them over the course of the week. And the spelling test results have improved significantly!