Charlatans, Dilettantes and Connoisseurs
CHARLATANS, DILETTANTES AND CONNOISSEURS
Poetry , like any other art form, has three types of practitioners. First, you have the charlatan. The charlatan makes up 89% of all practitioners of poetry. The charlatan pretends to know how to create poetry and the charlatan pretends to create poetry. But the charlatan will never intentionally nor accidentally create poetry because the charlatan doesn’t know what the charlatan is doing when the charlatan attempts to create poetry. The charlatan will never know what the charlatan is doing when the charlatan attempts to create poetry. Nevertheless, the charlatan will always tell you haughtily, arrogantly, condescendingly, superciliously and shamelessly that the charlatan always knows what the charlatan is doing when the charlatan attempts to create poetry. And the charlatan will always tell you shamelesly, superciliously, condescendingly, arrogantly and haughtily that the writings that the charlatan creates are the genius poetry work, the genius poery craft and the genius poetry art from the genius poetry imagination of a genius poetry practioner when in fact the charlatan wouldn’t recognize poetry if poetry ran over the charlatan while the charlatan was crossing the street.
Second, you have the dilettante. The diletante makes up 10% of all practitioners of poetry. And the dilettante, like the charlatan, pretends to know how to create poetry. And the dilettante, like the charlatan, pretends to intentionally create poetry. Nevertheless, the dilettante, like the charlatan, will never intentionally create poetry. However, the dilettante, unlike the charlatan, will accidentally create poetry. It’s a total mystery to the dilettante just where the dilettante’s poetry actually comes from. But the dilettante will never let on that this so. And the dilettante will always tell you haughtily, arrogantly, condescendingly, superciliously and shamelessly that the dilettante’s poetry is the genuis poetry work, the genius poetry craft and the genius poetry art from the genius poetry imagination of a genius poetry practitioner.
Third, you have the connoisseur. The connoisseur makes up 1% of all practitioners of poetry. The connoissseur, unlike the charlatan and the dilettante, doesn’t pretend to know how to create poetry. And the connoisseur, unlike the charlatan and the dilettante, doesn’t pretend to create poetry. The connoissueur knows how to create poetry. And the connoisseur can always intentionally create poetry. However the connoisseur needs to be inspired to create poetry. And when the connoisseur is inspired and does create poetry, the connoisseur will always tell you haughtily, arrogantly, condescendingly, superciliously and shamelessly that the connoisseur’s poetry is the genius poetry work, the genius poetry craft and the genius poetry art from the genius poetry imagination of THE GENIUS POETRY PRACTITIONER.
Copyright 2008 by Larry Ziman
Permission to reprint with acknowledgment