And so we land at the crime he is most famous for. The poem that killed poetry. “Ars Poetica.” In this poem, MacLeish’s thesis is a poem is a waste of time and one shouldn’t even bother with it. And with his poetry he comes SO CLOSE to proving this theory!
Continue reading “Archibald MacLeish Part Two: Arse Poetica”
Some poems stick with you all of your life. At the same time, so does extreme trauma and malaria. One poem/trauma that comes to mind is “Ars Poetica” by well-known walrus molester Archibald MacLeish.
Continue reading “Archibald MacLeish, Part One: The Nightmare Begins”
I used to disdain poetry. I wondered, “is there really anything worse?” And I disdained it for what I felt was a very compelling reason: I used to write poetry.
In fact, poetry used to consume me. I was a voracious reader of poetry, and therefore a voracious writer of it. It was an inglorious habit. When you tell people you’re a poet, they imagine the worst of you.
A key point about writing genre novels (and what ISN’T a genre these days) is to read heavily in the genre you wish to write in.
Which, yes, okay… that’s true. If you want to write Romance, read Romance. Take a look at modern trends, look at how the market is going, then take your story and aim for the biggest readership you can get. That’s all fine.
Here’s the problem: ONLY reading within your genre.
Note: No-Draft Theater is an exercise in improvisational fiction. I intend to write short pieces of fiction only one-to-three posts long, no outlining or other preparation, with each post around a thousand words. These pieces of fiction will only go through the most cursory editing.
“Well, then, what do you really do, Dad?”
He smiled wanly. “I am a Liar, Susana.”
The BIGGEST minutiae 