Rewriting History

write please read and enjoy

All these white skulls in black robes 

gather to form a scraping of the Grim Reaper's knuckles 

pale bones that crack over a century 

flakes fall, democracy a mockery, 

society reaching to tug on your regency 

swing your scythe, then, amateurs of Death

creeps-to-be, the sleep of the burden 

that you miscarry, a jury of a baker's dozen 

presided over by pressure, a phantasm form 

informing decision, the swift thievery 

of civility, it's clear the query presented 

and who you answer to are not your people 

you have more in common with plague 

famine, pestilence, strife and conflict 

caused by misjudging your own ability

to walk the edge of a conscience 

slick with the blood of right's robbery 

go and wet the knife, rest in fear at night 

instruments of murder who play an orchestral masterpiece 

if your backbone bent straight with morality, 

your souls would leave your bodies out of disgust for the high price due on the lease. 

Reviews

[JayG]

• I love writing and everything I know about it I learned by doing it on my own

It would be nice, were that true, but you missed several critical points:

1. You didn't learn poetry on your own. You spent more than a decade honing your skill at writing reports and essays in school, where they taught you NOTHING about the techniques of fiction and poetry. And it's those nonfiction you're using now. But in all those reports and essays you were assigned, you talked TO the reader, using the fact-based and author-centric techniques of nonfiction.

Why? Because you were given a set of general skills of use to most employers, who need us to write what amounts to reports and essays. Did one single teacher explain prosody? How about something as basic as why a scene on the page ends in disaster for the protagonist—and must? In fact, did they explain why a scene on the page is so different in presentation from one on stage, and what elements make it up—and why? If not, how can you write a scene? How can you write a poem that the reader will see as one?

Did a single teacher explain that while the goal of nonfiction is to provide an informational experience, poetry, as well as fiction, is 100% an emotional experience? As E. L. Doctorow puts it: “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader. Not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” And you CAN’T do that without knowing, and using the emotion-based and character-centric skills that the pros take for granted.

2. We do NOT learn the skills of the poet or fiction writer by reading it. We can’t, because while we can see the result of using those skills—and expect to see that in what we read—as always, art conceals art, and we never see the decision-points, or know why the author chose one direction over another. But of critical importance, we expect to see the result of those skills in use. More to the point, your readers expect that in your work, and will reject it of it's not there. And that is the single best argument I know of for digging into the skills of the profession.

After all, they offer degree programs in both Comercial Fiction-Writing, and poetry. And surely at least SOME of what’s taught there is necessary. Right?

My point? Don’t waste time trying to reinvent the wheel. Your writing will ALWAYS work for you because you begin reading with full backstory, context, and intent. And for you, only, the voice of the narrator is your voice, filled with the emotion you believe needs to be there. The reader? Have your computer read your work to you (an excellent editing technique you should already be using) And bear in mind that, unlike the reader, the computer checks punctuation before it reads the line, to aid in adding emotion. The reader doesn't. So there will be less, and more inappropriate emotion in the reader's voice.

But.... if you are meant to write, you’ll find the learning fascinating, and filled with, “How in the hell did I not see that for myself?” But more than that, when you master those skills the act of writing becomes a lot more fun.

For poetry, I recommend beginning with Mary Oliver’s, A Poetry Handbook. It’s highly recommended by lots of people. You can download it free here:
https://yes-pdf.com/book/1596

I know this isn’t something you were hoping to hear, but given that you’re not getting the comment responses you would hope for, and that we’ll never address the problem we don’t see as being one, I thought you might want to know.

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/the-grumpy-old-writing-coach/