"What the artist must aim at above all else is this: to produce, by any process whatever, a work which by the life and humanity emanating from it communicates to the beholder . . . ."
Italian Sculptor
1858 - 1928
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| Ecce Puer Behold the Boy (1906) |
Who is the audience for your creative work? This is a question I have struggled with for years. Is there an audience for my work? Is there someone who understands what I am communicating? First, poetry has a very small readership in this country. So the audience from which I can draw my readership is very small. Second, finding this readership is very difficult. One would hope that one could find a readership among other poets, but there are many people who write poetry who have never read it. Third, what I write does not fit within the historical categories of poetry. I don't rhyme or follow western forms. I did spend seven years writing and studying Japanese haiku which many in the west perceive as an exercise for school children. So after 35 years of writing, I have yet to find an audience for my writing who will stand in line for six hours to buy my next book. In fact, there are days I can't give it away. But I don't let the lack of an audience stop me from writing. I keep writing and believing that one day someone will read and appreciate.
