Q: What advice would you give to aspiring poets?
A: Read poetry. As much as you can, as often as you can. It's the only way to develop an eye for what sucks and what doesn't, which is the single greatest tool a poet can possess.
"and the rest is, well, not history, but at least a matter of record...." --Catherynne M. Valente
Catherynne M. Valente is the daughter of one of my High School debate partners, who has also just recently moved here to Peaks Island in Casco Bay. Haven't had a chance to meet her yet, and probably won't before I move back to the West Coast myself; but I have at least bought a few of her novels, and am looking forward to reading them this summer when my own life settles down a bit. She is apparently quite well respected in the tiny, cutting edge corner of the science fiction/fantasy world where she has found her niche, and I'm really looking forward to reading and learning more.
But today I just wanted to focus in on this small bit of advice to aspiring poets -- which is also true for aspiring novelists, playwrights, journalists, essayists, and even preachers.
Read.
Read as much as you can, as often as you can...in order to develop an eye (and more importantly, an ear) "for what sucks and what doesn't."
Neil Postman used to call it a "crap detector," and it really is the most important tool any aspiring "literary" artist can possess.
Or any reader, really.
Or for that matter, simply anyone....
Really.
Read.
2 comments:
Since you mentioned her I checked C. Valente's "Labyrinth" out of the library, just to give it a look. Of which high school debate partner is she the daughter? Ann B
Jeff T. (we weren't partners very long - basically just for summer debate camp at Seattle U; Jeff was a much better debater than me, and soon became one half of our number one team, while Bill V. and I were somewhere a little lower on the food chain)
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