There is somthing to be said about externalizing one's passion in an
artifact that makes, at least, pretensions, towards
artistry.
Besides therapeutic value, for the individual, is there not some therapeutic value for society as a whole? We accept the ineptitude of little league sports, so why not poetry?
We do now, more so than when I was doing this evil stuff. I vote for over-wrought angst, and not cowboy poetry, say, or poetry slam poetry.
I, for one, always envied the position of poetry behind the former Iron Curtain: A thing of value, and danger, because it exposed thoughts, and passions that made the regimes uneasy--or worse.
Poetry written by teenagers here is not the threat that such stuff behind the Iron Curtain was. The thought police of the media is usually too effective in dismissing it.
But I am always hopeful...I am always waiting for the sledgehammer from an unknown direction...maybe...shattering the temple....