“Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure.”
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I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.
And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.
Usually a life turned into a poem is misrepresented.
Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.