But granting that someone did say
in all seriousness that
the poets lie too much:

he was right – we do lie too much.

We also know too little,
and are bad learners: so we are obliged to lie.

And which of us poets has not adulterated his wine?
Many a poisonous mess
has evolved in our cellars:
many an indescribable thing has
there been done.

And because we know little,
therefore are we pleased from the heart
with the poor in spirit,
especially when they are young women!

This, however, do all poets believe:
that whoever pricks up his ears
when lying in the grass or on lonely slopes,
learns something of the things that are between heaven and earth.
And if tender emotions
come to them,
the poets always think that nature herself
is in love with them:
And that she steals to their ear
to whisper secrets into it,
and fawning compliments:
thus do they plume and pride themselves,
before all mortals!

Ah, there are so many things between heaven and earth
of which only the poets have dreamed!
And especially above the heavens:
for all gods are poet-symbolizations,
poet-sophistications!

Truly, ever are we inspired aloft
— that is, to the realm of the clouds:
On these do we set our gaudy puppets,
and then call them gods and Supermen:–
Are they not light enough for those chairs! – all these gods and Supermen?

Ah, how I am weary of all the inadequate that is insisted on as actual!
Ah, how I am weary of the poets!

Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Thomas Common, Part II Poets

A friend recently recommended the poetry of Charles Bukowski. I took a quick look at the book, Betting On The Muse, Poems and Stories. I decided to purchase a copy for myself. Poets and poetry have been controversial from the very beginning. Nietzsche, through his literary mouth-piece Zarathustra admits his misgiving, his caution with respect to poets, and their work. Strangely Nietzsche himself writes poetically, he is a poet! 

Plato in The Republic goes on at length about the dangers of poetry. Plato thought poetry which plays upon emotion was inferior to reason. Plato was a partisan of reason, – which goes a very long way to illuminate our American cultural heritage. Our founding documents explicitly state our reverence for, our dependency upon reason. Nietzsche/Zarathustra indicates in the lines quoted here that notions of a god (or gods) ensconced on high in the heavens are fabrications of the dream-catcher poets… Gods/Gaudy puppets which we insist are real! If current events are any guide, we Americans are not nearly as partial to reason as we’d like to imagine ourselves.

Would you enjoy a Charles Bukowski poem? Of course you would!

so
I
let them
have
their
little
victories
which
they need
far
more
than
I
do.