The plight of poetry today is something of which too few people are aware at all, and with which too many of those concerned often deal with a paralyzlngly heavy hand. Outside the golden circle of professional literary people Is a handful of individuals who, for reasons of their own — or, more realistically, for no "reason" at all — read poetry. The majority of the population never go near poetry, but hold opinions of the art ranging from vague suspicion to overt distrust (or disgust). Of those people who are exposed to poetry in one form or another as part of their formal education, most learn only to view it much as a prisoner views a new and particularly subtle sort of torture; the rest, who may have "liked" poetry when they were in school, would feel embarrassed if found reading it when the "need" (i.e., term of exposure) no longer exists
