poetry instruction books...

My aunt who is visiting Trinidad from the States came by us today and is staying the night. Thankfully, we got the house in decent enough shape before she came, or at least i hope so, i don't know what she thinks. We went out to dinner and the food was good again. I preferred the chicken in black beans at Yang's though.
I was watching Def Poetry on HBO tonite and i started thinking. Writing is supposed to be something intimate. You write what you feel and so everything you write is perfectly correct. Poetry is about your feelings and thoughts and experiences. So, since poetry is essentially for you, how can anyone else judge your work? And why are there all these "How to.." books and poetry classes? Then i figured it out. At its purest form, you dont need any of these things to write proper poetry because you know the context and feelings and emotions that led to the act of writing that poem or prose. The purpose of the instructions is to write poetry you can market to others. And I guess i understand that, but somehow, it leaves me with this feeling, that poetry meant to be marketed, isn't totally pure. How can you truly write what yu feel, if at the back of your mind, you are thinking, ' will this get published' ? I know i am probably being naive, but that thought just stuck in my head.
An advantage to a diary - it makes you think out the issue as you write it and helps you select better words to express yourself. And maybe, that isn't so different from what those "how to..." books try to accomplish. So, i guess I have been kind of hard on them. Anyhow, laterz.