Poetry in emotion

After the debacle involving  Oxford’s professor of poetry election; the unpleasant idea of competitiveness has reared its ugly head in the literary world.

At all levels it appears to me that writing is generally a very friendly community, but deep down do we all harbour dark thoughts about other peoples success?

And what would we be prepared to do to forestall it?

In an ideal world we could all have success, but it just doesn’t work like that.

I, like everyone else, am in competition for everything all the time. That’s what makes me better anyway. I have to do my best to be in with a chance of success. It stops me getting lazy and complacent.

But it’s common courtesy that I do have control over. Call it morals or doing the right thing. Call it common sense, treating others like I would like to be treated myself.

But it matters. Fair play shows a respect for your fellow artists and that’s important.

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