In order to grow as
a writer you have to be willing to journey to strange places, unfamiliar
territory. For many fiction
writers, the world of poetry feels like a distant realm, often unreachable. Many of us have been trained to believe
that there is towering wall that separates poetry and prose. You’re on one side or the other. Scaling that wall is harder than
climbing Everest. In reality,
nothing could be further from the truth.
That wall is
roughly as tall as a french fry.
Even I could climb over a french fry, as long as I wasn’t trying to eat
it at the same time. When you
climb the wall and enter the realm of poetry, you will soon realize that the
fruit on the trees will feed your voice as a fiction writer. The papaya made out of poetry is
extremely tasty when served in the middle of a landscape description or during
a particularly poignant moment in your book. Squeezing a poetry lime on a novel will bring out the flavor
of any dish you might be preparing in the kitchen of prose.
One need not write
poetry to feast on its fruits. You
can simply read poems in order to strengthen your voice, learning invaluable
lessons about compression and clarity and color and verve. Keats, Yeats, Billy Collins, Maya
Angelou, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop are waiting for you at the
library. They’re eager to help you
on your journey. So what are you
waiting for? Go for it!
FANTASTIC post! I do this periodically, strangely, especially with E.E. Cummings (sorry about the capital letters, E.E. I couldn't help myself) and Emily Dickinson. Also Robert Frost.
ReplyDeleteThere is poetry in all my stories, whether I actually write the poem or not. The poems are hidden in the characters.
All writing is poetry, even if it isn't verse. Just my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, great post, James! Love your metaphors.
Great point, Matthew. Maybe that's what I was trying to get at but you expressed it more succinctly!
DeleteI should have said all "creative" writing. I'm not sure I would call some of the technical manuals I have to slog through at the ole day job poetry.
DeleteLove this, especially as an author to stumbled into writing verse novels. For a long time I didn't acknowledge I was writing poetry because I didn't feel smart or skilled enough. The mantle felt too heavy. Just as I started getting comfortable with things, I heard from a number of people verse novels aren't poetry anyway.
ReplyDeleteI've decided whether they are or aren't poetry doesn't matter to me anymore, but let me tell you this: the distillation of language and imagery have been immensely helpful in my writing, of course, but also in how I process the things I read and how I see the world.
Poetry is meant to be seen and heard, I tell young readers, and living it these past few years has deeply grown me as a writer and human being.
There are two ways to distinguish what poetry is and isn't. Nobody knows what they are!
DeleteLove this!
DeleteI have a post on this coming later this week, except I go a bit farther.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Love your food similes and metaphors, except now I'm craving lime juice...
ReplyDeleteI wrote poetry long before I ever attempted a short story, a picture book or a novel. Periodically, when I'm stuck on my current novel, I take a break and write poetry, often haiku, just for myself.
I grew up on Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, and Carl Sandburg, and the latter said, "Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance."
"That wall is roughly as tall as a french fry."--great line, and so true! I love poetry. A lot of people say they don't "get" poetry, but I don't try to understand it, I just let the images wash over me and revel in the juxtaposition of the words.
ReplyDelete