Today's news in txtspk poetry

Just looked at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/05/carol-ann-duffy-poetry-texting-competition and http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/06/textspk-poetry-carol-ann-duffy what's most interesting is that most of the commentors simply did not get it though some did - in a way but what Duffy says is quite true - so very very true and, as a poet with a pure poetry blog i now know it not as a belief but as a fact based on how i can see people respond to poetry i'm no genius nor do i have a depth of education in some field that would enable me to convey ideas to a large number of people based on my "credibility" no but i know that i can encapsulate how i feel about an issue in a few lines of verse that will resonate in the minds of others - and that's simply a function not of my skill but of the nature of language and the fact that when we "ride" a poem we catch the intended feelings because our own feelings respond in a very natural way (go google mirror neurons for what i guess is some basis of this in neuroscience) i've wondered at times if poetry has been suppressed of a purpose because, when you consider the power of a poem - just words, no production costs, no distribution costs, no advertising costs, - just the ability to infect and then be passed on you might wonder if poetry is a tool of the masses that can be wielded to overthrow oppression but i guess not i used to write free verse but now i write mostly very strongly metered rhyming verse using the simplest of words trying to convey my feelings in the most succinct way the tricks i use, if any, are not tricks - they are the direct consequence of being constrained by the strong metering i have adopted - often requiring that i restructure a phrase in a way that somehow makes it have more power - because it tugs at our idea of "normal" "and every day that ends like this we bless in whispers to our children kissed" was a consequence of the original phrase simply not scanning well but i digress yes, a poem is the ultimate text message because a poem carries what text and email can not otherwise carry the infecting complex emotions upon which the meme depends well said Carol Ann Duffy The Peak Oil Poet