[stylist] Exhibit B

Sun Apr 5 04:24:12 UTC 2009

Sometimes hitting people over the head is the least effective method of
persuasion there is. When you are looking to win over an audience which
doesn't want to think very much, heart-felt emotion will win them more
quickly than fact every time. Admittedly this is a sad commentary, but how
much sadder than the observation that poetry which comes from the heart does
not succeed, in fact there needs to be some trickery involved for a poem to
really work with an audience?    

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of James Canaday M.A. N6YR
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 10:19 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Exhibit B

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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>
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