[stylist] Exhibit B

[James Canaday M.A. N6YR]

oh John,
by coincidence today I've been listening to very old jazz ballads 
today, sung by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Frank Senatra, etc., 
and the poetry set to music in those songs was much like your bad example.
many of those songs sold quite a lot.  many are timeless classics.
I think you are displaying a male bias about poetry.
in fact, that poem you gave could have been set to music.

one poet who engaged in wonderful poetic imagery was langston 
hughes.    btw, he grew up in Lawrence, attended church at a 
neighborhood church still functioning as a church.
yes, he worked hard, but he had imagery, and could sweep you rather 
than hitting you over the head.
jc

Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS

At 09:14 PM 4/4/2009, you wrote:
>Jim:
>
>Just for your edification, the word you want is imagination, not imagery.
>Imagery is what is on the page; imagination is what you have in your head to
>absorb and interpret it.
>
>As for the heart, tough love is the writer's best friend.  When someone
>reads your work, you're asking a huge favor, especially in this day and age.
>There better be a payoff, and to provide that, you have to be tough, even
>brutal.  In fiction, you need to kill people, really torture them, drag them
>through broken glass and hot coals.  In poetry, you don't have to do that
>because lyric poems are like snapshots, but if you write narrative poetry,
>the same rules for fiction apply.
>
>You know, Robert Frost once spoke to a room full of senior citizens about
>poetry.  Many of them were big fans of his poetry so they asked him to come.
>He talked on and on about the devices, tricks, syntax, tools, techniques,
>etc. of poetry.  This old lady stood up, "You cannot possibly mean all you
>say.  Your poems are so bootideefull!  It came from your heart!"  Robert
>Frost shook his head and leaned forward and boomed, "The techniques, the
>tricks, the devices--I REVEL in them!"
>
>Or take what W. H. Auden said about poetry.  Poetry is like propaganda.  The
>best propagandists, like the ones who worked for Hitler and Stalin, are
>people who no longer believe in language and uses it to manipulate people
>who believe in it.
>
>There have been many "from the heart" poets, such as Mrs. F. M. Hearns,
>Stanton Brooks, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, but they're all forgotten.  But Auden
>and Frost continue to have large readerships, and they continue to move and
>inspire people, including me.  Their work lasted and still retain their
>impact because they were ARTISTS--craftsmen, cunning, tough, sneaky, and got
>their hands downright dirty when they worked.  As C. S. Lewis liked to say,
>"It is only through hammer blows that a statue can become perfect."
>
>My father-in-law will never be a good writer.  I'll tell you why.  When he
>was in the Air Force, he applied to be a MP--military police--but they
>turned him down because he was too soft.  Good writers are the ones who
>would make good MPs.
>
>That's why I admire Judith Bron, even if we never agree.  She's one tough
>lady, and I bet she can tell one heck of a story.  She's not afraid to rip
>into your chest and maul your heart out, stomp on it with high heels, and
>then stuffing it back in upside down.  Since she is into dark stuff, horror,
>etc., I bet Atty is just as mean--which means, for writing, she's good.
>
>Are you in your leather vest with your Bowie knife drawn, Jim?  Turn on the
>red lights in your eyes and scare us to death!  We'll enjoy it!
>
>Smiles,
>John
>
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