If you want to get an idea of what I see as the purpose and meaning of poetry (and other art), you can pretty much just watch this video:

http://youtu.be/mVGjNbinBsQ

I've linked to this before, but I really can't do so enough.

The key idea is that poetry should convey truth. And that's something that's bothered me a bit about my poetry - most of my work does not capture the big t Truth of the world.

Take, for example, my recent poem, 'kindness'. It's basically chock full of blameshifting. Instead of acknowledging my own complicity in my situation and my own responsibility for pulling myself up and getting on with my life, I'm shifting the blame for all of my problems on to someone else. It's pure self-delusion.

But, on the other hand, these feelings are real. It captures an experience. It captures how pain can warp one's perceptions. It's not big T Truth, it's little t truth. And this is true of almost all of my poetry. I guess my hope is that the sum of the little t truth will, in the aggregate, portray a picture that captures some big T Truth, but I do worry a bit that my poetry will reinforce other people's misperceptions and delusions.

I actually held off on posting 'kindness' publicly because it only captures a shard of truth that is warped quite a bit by pain. The entire poem, actually, is meant to be about pain.

Not sure I have any grand summary to sum up with. Just some thoughts I've had about my work.