Switch-Hitting

"Oh hot damn, this is my jam..."--Flo-Rida, This Is My Jam

Gave a presentation this week on a poet named Chris Abani who also writes prose. And when I say "also writes" I mean "started out writing" and "writes concurrently with poetry" as well. He was a great find for me, because I got to talk about character development and plot arcs in a poetry class (yay!), and also because it opened my eyes to a dichotomy you often find in creative writing circles that isn't necessarily true.

Said dichotomy is the "fiction/poetry" dichotomy. For instance, creative writing classes at my school are divided into "Fiction" or "Poetry", and one must take so many of both types before one can graduate with one's slightly useful degree and hope to parlay it into a job doing more than flipping burgers.

But since when was poetry inherently not fictive? Was the person writing these definitions unaware of the countless lying poets throughout literary history? Sure, there's plenty of personal poetry, but I think Shakespeare and Homer count as well, just to name a few.

So, interesting thought for this Tuesday afternoon--why not switch-hit? Why not write poetry with plot arcs and developed characters? You might just learn something, and at the very least you ought to get some very different sounding poetry. It's something I intend to give a shot--just as soon as I've written the history for my damned Duennin...and the Tinkers...and the Necromantic Isle...

Oh well, maybe you should try it first and let me know how it goes, but I'll get to it someday, I swear!

And in other news, I've decided to start posting the most interesting three lines I've written in any given week on Fridays---be they poetry, prose, or even essay (though don't worry, that's an unlikely event). Stay tuned!