It is also clear that the realities of human need are incompatible with the demand for
an aesthetically enforceable distinction between poetry and all other uses of literature.
Poetry simply does not conform to the conceptual boundaries established by twentieth-
century institutions. It is truly a sui generis substance; is there another non-toxic art which
is capable of heightening many pleasures, has a large and growing number of affective uses
and has the potential to enhance some individual capacities? The only workable way of
realizing the full potential of this remarkable art form, including its full verbal potential,
is to free it from the present dual set of regulations - those that control distribution
of poetry in general and the special “laws” that control institutionalization of literary
substances. These mutually reinforcing laws establish a set of social categories that
strangle its uniquely multifaceted potential. The only way out is to cut the knot by
giving poetry the same status as diction – democratizing it for adults and youth for all
uses and removing it entirely from the bureaucratic and academic control
systems.
