07-22-2012, 11:36 AM
Read it: For me, poetry is like a string of one night stands. It lacks the commitment of the novel. I like getting to that line that makes me say yes that's true and have it knock the crap out of me. Purely selfish reasons. Like this strophe from Sandra Beasley's Small Kingdom I just read:
I don’t know how to keep you
without killing you a little – the way
my mother pares down the rosemary
each year to keep its flavor bright.
The way we must make all our loves smaller
before they can enter our kingdom.
It's those moments that keep me reading.
Write it: I write for the moment when the answer I need jumps into my head. Writing always feels like solving puzzles. I like getting answers.
I don’t know how to keep you
without killing you a little – the way
my mother pares down the rosemary
each year to keep its flavor bright.
The way we must make all our loves smaller
before they can enter our kingdom.
It's those moments that keep me reading.
Write it: I write for the moment when the answer I need jumps into my head. Writing always feels like solving puzzles. I like getting answers.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson