Interesting to see Ed Baker's reporting of Allen Ginsberg's words in his comment to the previous post:

Who do we write for? "For those who dig it!"

Good answer. I remember Ric Cadell saying something similar, like 'poetry is for interested people'. Treating poetry like another commodity means 'selling' it into 'a market'. Sure, we need to create a cultural environment which is conducive to the appreciation of poetry. But people's need for poetry comes from a different place to their need for iPods and wide-screen TVs.