When I encounter people on poetry boards, or on poetry blogs, and they say, “I write poetry!” I feel a kinship.
When I encounter people on general boards, or on the street, and they say, “I write poetry!” I feel only fear and dismay. It makes me want to flee the scene with my hands clapped over my ears.
Now, I’ll grant that I am abnormally, nay freakishly, chicken. Still, I’m more alarmed by poets in the wild, outside of the poetic zoos of poetry boards and journals, than I would be by a wolverine dancing the lambada on my bed.
You’re thinking of turtles. Wolverines don’t dance the lambada.
I go so far as to not even tell people “on the outside” that I write poetry. I have real-world- poetryphobia.
Having seen the results of showing an interest in front of some local poets, I think you have a good plan.
Keep those ears covered