Reading Poetry, again

Tags

creativity, jim harrison, leanoard cohen, poetry, prose

I’ve tried writing more poems than I’ve read. Well, before this past couple of weeks anyway. A couple of weeks ago I realized if I ever wanted to write serious poetry — and that decision is far from decided — then I had better start reading some, again.

I have tried reading poetry before. Usually I’d open an anthology at the library, read a poem or two, then fold the book back up in disgust. “What does this shit mean anyway?” I’d say. How can people write crap like this? How do people enjoy it?

And then I am drawn to a site like Robert Brewer’s Poetic Asides Blog at Writer’s Digest. I write a poem a day for a month and my head gets big. “I can do this,” I say. “It’s easy.” But  the honest truth is I have no idea how to write the things. I just write. I let the words explode from me and fall where they please. Kind of like this blog post. No plan, no form, just a rant with a possible end.

And then I will read a poem on Poetic Asides I think is crap but it has fifty comments praising it. And another will be total crap and have a hundred comments praising it. I chalk it up to popularism. You hang around a website long enough that people get to know you, you make enough generous comments about poems you don’t understand or appreciate, and sooner or later those make believe poets decide to like your generosity with praise and return the favor. Sort of like politics without the assholes.

I am being rude. Of course poets are nothing like I describe. I am making up excuses for my complete lack of understanding of and ability in the craft. I’d rather write prose any day. Conflict. Rising tension. Suspense. Imagery. Figures of speech. Empathy. A story formulated to encapsulate the reader. This stuff is easy (right); while poetry is hard. But something about poetry draws me in. I am a fish hooked on a line and not understanding what is causing the pain in my face as I somehow swim closer and closer to those green boots standing in the water.

When I read poems, something unexplained happens to me, and my prose writing likes it. I cannot adequately describe the effect, but I am open to new ideas, new words, new arrangements of words. It’s like a poem shuffles my brain and I am playing with a new set of random cards. I don’t even have to understand the poem. Most poems I don’t understand; they are puzzles to me, yet if I try to solve the puzzles, their effects backfire and I get nothing out of them. A bizarre game this poetry.

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to read some poems. It wasn’t a conscious decision. I was at Scheherazade Books and found a Leonard Cohen book it the $1 bin. I picked it up. What Canadian writer can resist reading Leonard Cohen? Stupid question, I know, but the answer should be none.

I was not enamoured by the book or even captivated. I struggled to read through it. I did enjoy a few of his poems, but most were … I gave the book an uneducated three stars. I said “They were terse and unemotional, written by a young man with a hard-on and little patience for the world.”

Before I had finished Cohen, I browsed the 800 section at my local library, the 803 and 808 writing craft books. Nothing interested me, so I flipped through some poetry books. Most were long and dreadful looking things written by people with unpronounceable names. I groaned. And then I saw the name ‘Jim Harrison.’ No, he’s not a Pawn Star but a prose writer. He is considered one of the unique voices in 20th and 21st century American literature. Les Edgerton recommends him, and I listen to just about anything Les Edgerton has to say, if I read or hear it. Les also turned me onto David Sedaris who I hate as a writer — his additive style irritates me. Anyway, it looked short and sweet, I like Harrison, so I signed it out. I hate his poems, but once again, they affect me in strange ways.

This past week I have re-written two major scenes in my current novel project, and I felt very much in control over the words. I explored and developed ideas that worked, I hope. I have also written a few poems and they felt good to write. Maybe it’s the reading of poetry and maybe it’s not, but something inside my grey matter is changing for the better.

I am now hoping to read poetry every day and write poems every week.

Learning To Write Fiction — Some Books

Tags

Grammar, prose, Writing

I feel uncomfortable as I begin this post. I do not consider myself an expert or even good at writing fiction. On one hand I know this is a sentiment most writers feel, yet on the other hand, I have only been writing fiction for five years. I have written much non-fiction: management consulting reports, some IT technical writing such as manuals, some minor web content, and of course hundreds of hours worth of diabetes, nutrition, social, and political debate in forums and various online outlets. I estimate I have written 2.5 to 3.0 million words since 2006. But quantity does not mean quality. If you do not actively learn theory, assess your own writing, and learn from your mistakes, you will not advance. This post is about theory and where to find it. Where I’ve found it.

There are several aspects to writing. A writer needs to know grammar (I will not debate this) and sound grammar is ubiquitous to all writing. The set of techniques needed to write a novel is different from the techniques to write a short story, yet there are similarities besides the variances, and variations besides the assumed. One cannot say “these are the rules.” And then, perhaps outside boundary, are more general, creative elements: sentences, paragraphs, openings, scenes, closings, the give and take sine wave scene-sequel construct, motivation, routine, and a host of technique living somewhere between grammar, form, and end product.

These are simply the books that have helped me become a better writer. They are not about technique for writing stories. I don’t give you scene, plot, or story element theory, the Hero’s Journey for example. These books are about writing. I begin at the basics and move into more advanced topics. I fear my explanations will be thin. Get copies and read them yourself!

Painless Writing Studying grammar is difficult. Often we do not know our own weaknesses — the blind leading the blind — and we need help. Strausser leads you through the relevant basics that will improve your writing. It is a timeless book, and I plan on re-reading it soon.

 Writing Well: The Essential Guide The entire book is worthy, but the section I found most useful was Tredinnik’s discussion on sentence types. 13 total with hints on usage. If you don’t know what a triadic sentence is, then you may need this book.

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One Stanley Fish is an unbearable blowhard, yet I found this book most fascinating. There are perhaps a half-dozen important lessons in this book that every writer must know. I am sure a lengthy blog post could cover them all, yet the writer in me says this is where the real writer needs to work. Work through this book and I guarantee you will be a notch above 90% of all other writers; though neither of us will be able to explain exactly why.

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them This is not a detailed how-to book but a learn-by-example book. Many have criticized it. Her chapter on dialogue is priceless! Those who persevere through this book will be the stronger writers.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print This is as much a book on how to write as how to edit — two sides of the same coin. Show don’t tell, dialogue, narrative, point of view, proportion, voice, sophistication, and more. This book is a gold mine for the new writer and a  useful refresher for all writers. I will read it again more than once.

Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively Who knew there was so much to think about when describing something? A fantastic exploration. This is somewhat a reference book and is useful to review when stuck writing description. If you think description is simply finding words to describe, you are so wrong! *grin*  

Attack of the Copula Spiders: Essays on Writing If was limited to one craft book, it would be Douglas Glover’s. This collection of essays is rich and deep, a lifetime of knowledge packed into not-easy-to-extract-and-assimilate narrative. The “Drama of Grammar” alone is worth the price of the book. Google ‘Glover but construction’ for hints and what this contains. I plan on pass #2 sometime soon.

How Fiction Works This is not a how-to book. Subjects such as plot, characterization, dialogue etc. are not covered. This book is about lubrication and engineering, not design. How come writing works so well? What are those gears turning inside that box really doing? What kind of grease does that writer use? When I hear two workshop leaders, a poet and an eminent Canadian author (Lisa Moore) recommend this book, I pay attention. Read it with an open mind; it will pay dividends.

Tresspassing Poems

Tags

fermented, freer, poetry, prose, salsa, saurkraut, tresspassing, vocabulary, Writing

Been working hard on novelling, reading, and improving my vocabulary. I’ve also been making fermented saurkraut and salsa. Oh my, I do love fermented salsa.

I have started a Wednesday night writers group. We meet for a couple of hours at the library, and we try writing to the Wednesday poetry prompt, and we don’t limit it to poetry. I’m feeling like I’m loosening up a bit in my writing. The words are flowing a little freer lately. I hope you enjoy these two.

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/wednesday-poetry-prompts-194

For today’s prompt, write a trespassing poem. Your poem can be written from either side of the fence or take an impartial view from the sidelines.

#1

In a Cemetary

Leaning softly arm around arm
Shoulder against shoulder
Backs against granite
Hands gently squeezing
Warm cans of beer

#2

When The Night Falls

When the night falls hard like
The last wheelbarrow of stones dumped behind the barn
Picked from the field
Rocks our oxen stumble over and plough blade chips on
Or catches and halts us in the wet dirt
When that last light at Yoder’s fades and
The whippoorwill sings
When the mosquitos tresspass into your room
And you chase them with your only book
Your Huckleberry Finn swatter
And your head sinks into that feather pillow
Unable to lift itself from the fall
You know it was a good day

 

The Power And The Glory

Tags

classic, don't tell, free indirect style, graham greene, great, Literary, novel, prose, show

I’m almost finshed reading Graham Greene’s “The Power And The Glory.” I highly recommend it; though many consider it a boring read.

I have a picture in my writing room of a Mexican scene. It’s outside achurch with a bunch of peasants sitting on the ground with mats covered in unknown wares. It’s outside a church door with a blurred entrance. For me it’s a vision out of this novel.

Here’s a quick snapshot of it, cropped with a lamp out of view on the right.

Cortès’ Painting of a Mexican Village

Greene doesn’t use much exposition to describe scenery. His work is a great example of showing versus telling, use of symbols and themes, and in painting a very deep character.

Last night a couple of lines caught my attention: They were down off the hills and in a marshy plain. Soon the whole state would be subdivided by swamp. The rains had really begun.

I thought wow!

This was page 198 of 222, and it had already rained quite a bit in the story with numerous thunderstorms passing over and drenching everything. Another had just passed the previous pages.

I noticed the first line right away as a bit odd; because it was my first recollection of any physical description of the landscape. [a quick review found more early on, and these were brief one or two liners.] The second line made me stop: subdivided? I could immediately picture areas I’ve lived in. My current community used to be nothing but trees and bog, and now it’s nothing but trees and bog and homes. I could easily envision my neighborhood with all the homes replaced by swamps. The rain had begun indeed. I now imagined those recent 22 inch florida rains hitting my subdivision and filling up all the yards and driveways.

Powerful images; simple techniques?

So what did Greene do to whack me upside the head with these powerful visions with so few words? It was simple really. First he prepared the situation with many thunderstorms and people taking shelter. Call it foreshadowing: the repeated subtle incidents prepared us subconsciously for more. He slowly built up the images of heavy rains and taking cover, so when he finally does use expostion to describe the scenery, we already have visions of heavy rain and its resulting hardships. It’s symbolism at work. Every time it rains, bad things happen. Now near the end, the really heavy rains hit, and it hints at a disastrous ending.

Then he uses simple contrast: it’s like this now, but it will be like that very soon. It’s much more effective and visually stimulating than writing “The marshes will turn into swamps.”

But the key to the lines is the word subdivided. It’s an extraordinary use of the concept called free indirect style. With free indirect style we see things both through the character’s eyes as well as the author’s. We already know this priest has lived in the midst of peasant Mexico sometime during the first half of the 20th century. This novel was published in 1940. The priest had no knowedge of such concepts as subdivision, not of turning the wild into plots for homes, but the author did. We are being presented a picture of the land in both the priest’s vision and the author’s, a double-hit.

Greene uses free indirect style is several passages, and I found this novel a masterful piece of work on may levels. I highly recommend reeading it.

Links:

Free Indirect Style – About
Free Indirect Style – How Fiction Works
Free Indirect Style – The Blank Page
Free Indirect Style – Susan Swan

The Power And The Glory – SparkNotes
The Power And The Glory – Wikipedia

Doctor John!

Tags

A1C, diabetes, DOC, Literary, prose, PWD, retinopathy, Writing

I’ve written a lot about diabetes. Most of the time I respond to forum posts. A forum post can serve many purposes. The member can be looking for help and advice, they might be ranting about a problem, or they may be giving advice. I think that probably covers the gammut: input, processing, and output to the old-school IT folks.

My responses usually involve a certain amount of information. I have experienced a lot with my disease — I am a type 1 diabetic in my 37th year of battle — and I think I have a fairly comprehensive view of management techniques. We commonly say “Knowledge is Power!” and I follow through with trying to provide knowledge to the ignorant. Being ignorant and being diabetic is not a good combination. This is not a disease you want to have if you are stupid. Too much can and will go wrong. I am also not afraid to try new things. I consider myself a willing lab rat, and I consider all possible advice.

When I reply to threads, I usually pick one of four formats:
– this is what I did and why
– this is what I think the issues really are and these are your choices
– that’s wrong and this is right (Ye olde debate)
– good luck with that!

One thing I try never to do is tell someone what they should do. I don’t know them, and I am not qualified to make such statements. In fact, anybody who says “you should … ” get’s a big red X put beside their name in my book regardless of subject. Life is not that simple, diabetes is not that simple, and writing is not that simple. Yes I’m writing about writing.

Here’s a post I wrote this morning.

Keep in mind your objectives. The needs of a child are different than the needs of an adult on a ketogenic diet. For a child running high blood sugars, accuracy and ability to get quick samples is important. You are making immediate decisions which impact your child’s life. When I show ketones, and I almost always do, I merely want to know what color purple it is. I know it won’t be dark since DKA doesn’t happen on a ketogenic diet, but too light means I’m cheating too many carbs. I just now tested between 40 and 80 (4 and 8) and last evening I was 40 (4). My BGs this morning were a bit high at 142 (7.9), but I had a late snack while watching hockey last night, and I bolus conservatively before bed.

Here I was informing someone about ketone testing. I did this because most diabetics and health care professionals have limited understanding of ketones. They typically see ketones as bad, and in my opinion, that’s a wrong approach. I didn’t tell this person that. I didn’t delve into all my opinions about doctors and diabetic educators and the evils they bring. I simple told it how it is. I left it open for those interested to research. “Ketogenic diet, what the hell is that? I’ll Google it.” I’m not writing a book here; I’m triggering peoples’ brains. I want them to think!

Later I responded to a dad questioning if it was okay to feel apathetic about his child’s high blood sugars.

I tell diabetics “great things are accomplished in small steps.” Of course the number is important and we don’t want them, but flushing out the reasons is not easy, and applying practical solutions is often harder. It took me over 30 years to figure it out and I still struggle daily

• – current 5.6 A1C, very very few hypos, and no signs of retinopathy
  
• – dx 1975
  – 911’d nine times 1995-2006
  – prolif retinopathy 1994
  – 4000 laser zaps 1994 – 2000
  – vitrectomy 2006

Keep the head up and feet moving forward.

This thread informs, but it’s primarily motivational. I start out telling them there is hope and that losing battles are expected in this war. I let them know it’s alright to feel defeated but victory is still possible, if not probable. I often “show” them my situation and my turnaround. I want them to visualize what I’ve been through and what I’ve accomplished. A diabetic reading those points will see fabulous facts in the first line. They should say “great!” Then the following five points will tell them I’ve been through a war. It should tell them that turnarounds are possible, that we do it every day. If your not a diabetic, you really can’t relate to what four thousand blasts of laser are like. These are not simply bright lights but are little bolts of flame burning the back of my eye. My retinas look worse than any burned and mangled body. If you don’t believe me, Google panretinal photocoagulation someday when you’re pretty sure you won’t throw up. If you can still stand after that, then try Googling Vitreous Hemorrhage  or Vitrecomy and watch the Youtubes.

I then end it with another motivating line. It’s nothing particularly moving; it’s just a  simple message of hope.

Writing like this is different from writing creatively, but I still try to use literary techniques such as showing vs. telling and using active verbs and sentences. For fun, I wondered if I could write a fictional piece about a diabetic child at school with high blood sugars. It rambles a bit, but enjoy anyway 🙂

Billy attempted to walk home from school instead of taking his usual bus. He knew exercise would lower his blood sugars, and it semed like the cure for the 450 his meter showed him. But brains soaked in high levels of blood sugar don’t function well. Before he knew it, he was looking for a bathroom to relieve himself in, but of course there aren’t any public restrooms in West Allis neighbourhoods. He settled on a row of big bushes running between two houses. He remembered thinking he was doing the bushes a service by watering them, and when the branches hit his face, he knew he should swipe them away, but his hands wouldn’t move. He couldn’t feel his hands or his legs or the large roots as his head hit them. Those bushes might have been his last resting place if old Marge hadn’t come home early from work. She opened the door of her big Mercury Marquis and saw the little body laying in her hedge. “Oh My” she thought, and immediately reached in to see if it was alive. Her cell phone was new to her, but she knew enough to dial the simple numbers – 9 1 1 .

Billy spent the night in the hospital and the next morning his parents grilled him about his day then drilled him on making good decisions. Billy looked at them with big eyes that knew his parents’ words did not match his day. That’s when doctor John entered the room. He slid in silently while Billy’s parents prattled on. The doctor stood and listened. Billy knew he was sneaking, that he was on his side, and he knew not to let on after doctor John winked at him. He knew he had a new friend, someone to tell these big mouths to shut up!