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The oldest question in poetry is not, why do people think Charles Bukowski is a genius? It's what on earth should I write about. Anyone who picked up a pen or pounded a keyboard (or put quill to parchment for all you nerds) had to sit there and think about it. It's a jarring process, alone with your insatiable need to write but with nothing to say one can feel their most arrogant. Think about it! Knowing that you want your voice to be heard while you can't think of what you want it to say? Sounds kind of screwed up if you have to explain it, some modern poets like Andy Rooney of 60 minutes don't have to think about what topic to pick he just jabbers words out of his crazy pie hole until he's exhausted and then goes back to quiet. Now thats a pure creative process.

You can write about politics but you won't be the only one, on any side of any issue its been taken on. If your honest with yourself and your writing for an audience you end up taking into account the balance of disclosure your craft requires. People ultimately want to know about you, but not too much. They want to watch you laugh, watch you cry but they don't want to watch you poop. If you think all topics in poetry have been covered write a whole book about urinating and pooping then try to sell it. You'll learn the hard way not all topics in life are covered and if they are some are lightly touched and its for a reason. I'm very vague right now but poetry and writing in general is about balance.

Sex gets written about and rightfully so but if your too close to your own emotions while your putting it together it can end up written just for you with so much information that it cant be looked at by someone outside of your sphere with value. I don't want to give the impression that this is a lesson and that I know what I'm talking about. I was sharing my confusion on the subject with you, I've written about some amazingly stupid things(I almost wrote a whole story about a guy who paid for hookers and didn't have relations with them he just beat them at Yahtzee)

The worst part is that every profound re-defining line of inspirational poetry will have an awful aftertaste for you as a writer. You will wish on some level that you could duplicate it and if your an honest person you'll admit you wish you wrote it. If you meet and hang out with writers you admire you should grow to fear them and use your common love for writing to create an arms race. Fear that person and write better to crush them under you and then shake that shit out of your head and what you've written will be great. I THINK! I can't be blamed for any of this stuff not working because if I'm just bullshitting but one of the great things that writing has taught me is that when you bullshit you should bullshit confidently.