I don't know, Menno. Sometimes I think it's mostly just your issue, and then at other times I have confronted it when trying to write poetry and fiction, and to be honest I have always had my troubles with self-consciousness and I've often refused to write anything at all when I've felt too disgusted with the thought that everything going down on the page was "for others," sometimes no matter how hard I desired to escape "them," move them out of mind, politely, forcefully, creatively, angrily, or whatever way I could.

To be very, very honest, I have frequently refused to write anything after reading others, for example, others among my Poetics List friends and folks I deeply admire, for I have been disgusted with the contradiction inherent in the very idea that poetry is not supposed to "communicate," and yet why on earth would so many folks be working so damn hard to get it published and share it with others? I cannot, generally, get past that issue. Maybe now, yes, you're right, Menno, we must resolve this issue.