Do you guys enjoy sharing your poetry with others or do you keep it private? I have this weird thing where I'm fine with strangers reading mine, but refuse under any circumstances to show it to my close family/friends (minus a select few). It just feels very invasive and violating. What are your thoughts?
Also, do you write for yourself or with the intention of sharing them with an audience?
After some personal growing I am rather open to sharing my poems. If people want to read then they are welcome to do so. Critique on them is easy to take if it is constructive. If people trash them just to make fun of me. Well that hits a little closer to home. My family goes nuts when I publish something and sometimes that makes me crumble. Maybe they think I am going to rattle some family skeletons.
Most of my friends (on Facebook) have no idea I write poetry! Haha mostly because I cringe at the thought of my husband‘s great aunt Betty reading some of my more intimate poems. So I choose not to share on some platforms. I once wrote a poem about the Sacredness of women and their menstrual cycles which freaked my dad out!
Love reading these. It’s fascinating to see what all your POVs are
I write with the thought of the intent to share, but never do, and when I do share I never enjoy it. I'm a very private person usually. It's only in the last year I've had the courage to start showing people what I write and posting my poems to my Instagram.
I think it's just naturally more terrifying for someone you know to read your work. If it's a stranger then all they really have to go on is your poem and they can either buy into you from that or they can say they don't like it and you can count it as one opinion (even if you do cry in the corner a bit). But if it's a friend, they already know you and what you're about and it's scary to show something you've created to someone who has the power to decide if this creative side of you is something they accept and take seriously. It's a whole different kind of vulnerable. Luckily, my friends are down with it 😁
I remember a few months ago I was reading out a poem I'd written to my friend - that's probably worse than just sharing something, reading it out omg it's the worst - and my legs were trembling so much I thought I was about to collapse in a heap. It just combines all the things I hate: sharing my writing, speaking, presenting in front of people/someone I know, people looking at me, etc. I don't know how people do it lol
Honestly, I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't mind strangers reading my poems. I'm happy for people in my regular workshops to read my poems. My best friend reads all my poems. But the thought of my immediate family reading my poems kind of stresses me out. They have read my poems but I feel awkward about it.
And all of my poems are for me. They're how I process events, memories, experiences. I work off prompts quite a bit but the poems are always tailored to me and my feelings.
I am pretty much totally comfortable sharing my poetry publicly, since I began writing under a pseudonym. My work is almost entirely based on my experiences, and some of the people in them are still in my life, which could be awkward if they read it.
With the exception of my dad, husband and daughter, my family aren't really supportive of it, mainly because they don't see writing as a viable career. I share everything I post on IG onto my personal FB profile too, and I'll get strangers liking and commenting on poems whereas my family act like it doesn't even exist. That hurts. Luckily some friends are supportive, but that's only since they have actually read some of my work.
Sorry if is a bit of a ramble, my brain isn't being particularly coherent lately.
I think what I was trying to say is I am comfortable with strangers reading and reacting to my work because for now, the author is faceless. I care with family and friends because I care what they think. Rejection from them would hurt way more than a face less account on IG.
I have found getting a few trusted friends to read my work aloud, to themselves and then to me, really interesting. I was surprised where they struggled and what they emphasised. So that's a handy tool to use if you have it.
It's funny, I don't if anyone else is like this, but I've always been the same. I write and don't even give it a second thought how it will be received, and I NEVER consider what it would be like for other people to take in. I have never had a problem with strangers reading my work. But I always clench my toes and butt cheeks if someone I know wants to read my work haha