back home up next

 

Why, Then, Bother at All?

        As Myrtle Whimple says, poetry is its own reward.  It'd better be, for there is very little other reward for it, as for virtue.  Yet it is satisfying to have your poetry printed in a handsome booklet – something cheap enough that you don't mind giving it away.  (Or a graphically beautiful book, with illustrations and fine typography and rice paper and leather binding with gold embossing, if you can afford all that!)  If you give poetry readings, you should certainly have copies to sell to the audience – and should be unembarrassed about making them available.  That is one instance in which a sale may have real meaning:  people have heard the poetry and like it enough to want to have a copy to take home.  In time you may build up a general interest in your work, sufficient that even the establishment publishers may want to bring out an edition.  But don't live in such castles in the sky.  You can get a fine booklet of poetry printed for less than $100 and enjoy having it and giving it to those who care.

back next