Why Is Poetry So Hard?

If you're going to have your heart broken, you might as well have it broken by poetry. At least you'll be in good company. From the dawn of human history, and the advent of the written word, only a very few have been accepted as master poets. And when I say a few, I don't mean a small percentage, I mean dozens, maybe only a few hundred. Ever. Writing great poetry is not easy. In fact, it may be the most difficult and enviable skill of all. You can't do it. Even great writers can't do it. Rock stars can't do it. I know I can't do it.

Why is it so difficult to be a great poet? And why it a talent so woefully undervalued in human cultural history? I'm not sure there a lot of great answers to that question. People have very ingrained and deeply-rooted feelings about poetry. The first is that they don't like it. Which is untrue, because peoples' days are full of bad poetry. 

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