This article deals with a most important subject in my view and that subject is how to be true to your art whatever that art may be. My art is poetry so I'm going to use this as my example but feel free to apply this article to any art you have a true passion for because I feel it's universal.
I see so many people who enjoy writing being what I call crossover artists who write in many genres but have no real specialty. I see romance authors or science fiction authors also putting out poetry books claiming to be authors/poets and this to me is troubling.
I am a poet who loves poetry and concentrates only on poetry so this kind of thing when it comes to crossing over I personally find insulting. The people who do this crossing over from genre to genre in my opinion are just trying to get their names seen in as many places as possible in the hope that in one it will stick and someone will see it.
I feel they care little for whatever genre they are writing under and they only care for the press that comes from it. In the music industry you don't see rappers/country artists so why in the literary world do we see romance/science fiction/poets?
In my opinion the crossovers have no real passion or belief in any one genre so they write in them all and to me it's disturbing. In my belief they also lessen and take away from the accomplishments of true artists solely dedicated to one genre and one genre alone.
You never see a proctologist/brain surgeon and so you shouldn't have the fake author/poets of the world that lessen what poets do in the art.
I study karate and I took the time to find a real street effective self defense system of genuine value that is not used for sport or pretty acrobatic shows. I have a passion for the art and I'm true to it not wanting to mix it up with other things like a bad salad. It's already perfect in every way to me without myself or someone else mixing things in and changing it's real and effective and valuable origin.
I guess my message to crossovers would be to stop diluting the art we care for by just dabbling in it and then calling yourself a poet because you disgrace real poets by doing that. Take a look at what happened to M.C. Hammer when he went and crossed over from dancing to thug and you'll understand the phoney light real poets see you in.
Think about having passion and originality for once and be true to your art with emphasis on the part that says your art. Leave ours alone and stop diluting it with your novice work and overblown ego. Be true to your art people.
Once you cross and change an art it ceases to be what it was and it begins to change because of dabblers and crossovers looking for another place to post their names and it sickens me.
If you know your true and real interest is not poetry then leave it to the people who have it as a real and true interest and stick to writing romance or whatever you do because you're not and never will be a poet.
