My friends laughed when I said, “Everybody is a dentist until proven otherwise.” I told them I can pull all sorts of things, but strangely they balk at the thought of me pulling their teeth! Why then is it so believable when someone said, “Everybody is a poet until proven otherwise?”
The time artists spend in advancing their skills is no less than someone who goes to school and earns a degree. Just as law students have to pass their bar exams before becoming lawyers, the arts have standards too.
It is of course important to share the joy and encourage others to create. But empowerment is not the same as entitlement.
John F Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” Substitute “your country” with “poetry”. Isn’t advancing the course of poetry the job of every poet?
Image taken from: Boycott Bad Dentists.
