Stephen King's Toolbox

Stephen King’s Toolbox

I recently read novelist Stephen King’s memoir On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.  I found it a thoroughly enjoyable read.  If there was one point I got out of the book it is that King is a hard worker; he writes daily and sets himself a goal of something like 2,000 words a day.  And he rewrites and edits meticulously.  This has all paid off for King in one of the most, perhaps the most, successful writing career in history.

King is a novelist and not everything King says about the craft of writing is applicable to poetry.  But a surprising amount is.  In particular, I enjoyed the section where King describes what he metaphorically calls his ‘writer’s toolbox’; which is a list of tools that King brings to every writing task.  The Chapter, called Toolbox begins on page 111 and continues through page 137.  I particularly found pages 114 through 122 helpful.  Let’s look at King’s toolbox and see how it applies to writing poetry:

The first tool, what King calls the commonest tool of all (page 114) is vocabulary.  Vocabulary is the single most important tool for a poet as well.  Vocabulary is what poets draw upon to make their poems.  Vocabulary is like flour for a baker, or bricks for a bricklayer, or pitches for a tunesmith.  As King notes, different people use different vocabularies; some have a very learned and complex vocabulary while some have a more ordinary vocabulary and, perhaps, one that is less complex.  King suggests that the best way to increase one’s vocabulary is simply to read; and that makes great sense to me.  For the poet, reading a lot of poetry is the single best way to cultivate one’s own vocabulary.

There is another way for poets to expand their vocabulary which King doesn’t mention; perhaps because it is more suited to poets than novelists.  And that is to simply listen to people as you go through your day.  When you go to the grocery store, the bank, wherever you go, just listen to the people as you walk by, as you are standing in line, passing them on the street.  I don’t mean that you should snoop.  I mean that instead of daydreaming or thinking about something-or-other, just listen to people as they are talking in a natural and unobtrusive way.  My favorite location for doing this is at coffee shops.  It is amazing what you can learn about how people use words in these kinds of ordinary situations.  If you work retail you are in an ideal situation because you cannot pick and choose who you are going to interact with which means that you will be exposed to people whose word choices and usages are different from your own.  While waiting on customers and engaging in the banter of buy and sell, listen to their speech, phrasing, the way they accent a syllable, or drop a syllable, the way they frame a thought, etc.  I am suggesting that the poet be attentive to the waves of words they are swimming in.  Listening in this way will naturally expand your vocabulary; it will also expand usage beyond what you engage in as the result of your upbringing and education.  I have found that in ordinary speech people are often hovering at the edge of poetry and, sometimes, for short bursts, spontaneously speaking poetically.  This can be hugely enriching.

 But the important thing for a poet is to feel free to use the full range of vocabulary that one already has no matter what the source.  It is important that a poet not think of some words as inherently ‘unpoetic’.  The full range of our vocabulary, whatever it includes, is there for the picking. 

The second tool is grammar; and I couldn’t be more delighted to read that King included this much neglected subject as an essential writing tool.  It is my personal feeling, based on reading a lot of contemporary poetry, that this is a tool which needs to be consciously honed by many poets today.  My impression is that there are a lot of modern poets who just don’t have a good grip on English grammar.  I say this because of such simple things as observing an inability to distinguish between ‘its’ and ‘it’s’, or confusion over when a word is a plural and when a word is a possessive (let alone plural possessive).

I also sense a lack of grammatical chops when I read poems, mostly free verse, where there is zero coordination between lineation and grammatical structure.  Yes, I know, no doubt the poet was using their ‘feelings’ to determine lineation.  Sure, sure.  But I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the primary reasons for the slovenly lineation which is so common among free verse poets today is simply a lack of understanding regarding basic sentence structure, parts of speech, phrasing.  At least from my perspective, and from King’s as well, that is the conclusion one is forced to draw.

King has some interesting things to say about grammar which, I think, apply to the poet as well.  On page 121 King writes, “One who does grasp the rudiments of grammar finds a comforting simplicity at its heart, where there need be only nouns, the words that name, and verbs, the words that act.

“Take any noun, put it with any verb, and you have a sentence.  It never fails. Rocks explode.  Jane transmits.  Mountains float.  These are all perfect sentences.  Many such thoughts make little rational sense, but even the stranger ones (Plums deify!) have a kind of poetic weight that’s nice.”  Right on, Stephen.  I can’t help but think that some of the weirder projects for cultivating a grammar in English Language Haiku that limits, or eliminates, verb usage is derived from a lack of basic grammatical understanding.

King goes so far as to recommend that you purchase Warriner’s English Grammar.  I was not familiar with this grammar.  When I looked it up online I found that it is a basic English Grammar that was widely used in grade schools for many years.  Obviously King used it, remembers it, and likely still uses it.  I agree with King; every poet should have on their shelf a basic grammar to reference and to refresh their understanding.

That’s the end of King’s first level of his toolbox; though he has more tools at lower levels of the toolbox.  As a poet I would add one more to the top drawer of a poet’s toolbox: lineation.  Lineation is not of crucial concern for the novelist; but for the poet it is absolutely essential.  And for the syllabic poet it is doubly essential.  I have written about this before, so I won’t repeat myself except to say that without a sure grasp of how to define a line, a syllabic poet’s work will, in all likelihood, end up reading like, and sounding like, free verse.  It is lineation which distinguishes a syllabic approach to poetry from that of free verse and metrical verse.

King’s book On Writing is an easy read.  The mixture of memoir and tips on how to write is well balanced and keeps the reader engaged.  I learned a lot from this enjoyable book; perhaps you will as well.

The Carpenter's 600: A Review

I wanted to let readers know that Peter Britell has issued an expanded edition of his Haiku.  I previously reviewed the '500 Haiku of the Carpenter' (click on the 'Review' category to find it).  I like Britell's Haiku hugely.  I find his work original and engaging. 

Britell's book of Haiku started out with 'The 400 Haiku of the Carpenter', which was published in 2010.  Then this was expanded with 'The 500 Haiku of the Carpenter', published in 2011.  Now, in 2013 he has published the '600 Haiku' edition.  This is an interesting aspect of print-on-demand technologies that I am seeing more and more.  With print-on-demand it is much easier than when using a traditional publisher to re-edit one's work.  In Britell's case, he has used print-on-demand services to regularly expand his collection of Haiku.  My sense is that Britell composes Haiku throughout the year and then winnows what he has written; and those that he thinks are worthy are added into his collection for a new edition.

I have done the same already with one of my own collections; revising 'Safe Harbor' after its initial issue because I found one of the poems didn't really fit in.  It was a simple matter to change it because I was using print-on-demand technology.  In my own mind I suspect that in a year or two I will probably add poems to 'Safe Harbor' and to 'Lanterne Light' in the same way that Britell has added to his collection of Haiku.  In the standard world of book publishing this relationship to one's work would not have been possible because the publisher and editors would have resisted this kind of revision. 

There is, however, precedent for this kind of revision.  I'm thinking specifically of Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass'.  Depending on how you define an 'edition', Whitman issued six to nine editions of 'Leaves of Grass' over his lifetime.  If I recall correctly, the first edition was self-published.  This first edition was a slim volume; about 100 pages.  The last edition, the 'deathbed edition', is over 400 pages. 

I have enjoyed watching Britell's collection expand.  He is a fine Haijin.  I have not made a systematic comparison between the editions, so I don't know which 100 Haiku have been added to this latest release.  I only know that I enjoy his approach to Haiku.  I find it articulate, with a sureness of image.  In terms of the craft of Haiku, the lineation is secure and the seasonal approach predominates. 

Britell uses an approach that retains the three-line structure but he indents the second line and divides it into two parts.  Here is an example:

Clear winter silence;
          sliver crescent moon
          resting
between tree branches.

This way of constructing the second line allows Britell to communicate a subtle caesura to the reader while at the same time preserving the 5-7-5 overall structure.  I find this an efficacious approach and in the hands of this particular author it works very well.  I believe that this approach to composing syllabic Haiku goes back to Peter Beilenson's translations of Haiku that appeared in the late 50's and early 60's.  But Britell's approach is singularly effective.  Britell continues to demonstrate just how effective this approach is.

Another aspect of Britell which I appreciate is that he is open to using the full range of poetic tools; that is to say he is not averse to using techniques like metaphor, personification, rhythm, etc.  Here is an example:

Spring, which was so near,
          is far off now,
          like a girl
waving from a train.

This is a really well-crafted, and effective, usage of metaphor.

Britell's Haiku are often nature-centered, sometimes human-centered, often serious, sometimes humorous, and at times he mingles these realms in a single Haiku.  For example:

In the night reaches
          wild winds chase
          the cold rain --
a glass of old wine

Britell's Haiku are a great pleasure to read.  They are finely crafted and resonate in the mind and heart.  I am happy to see that his collection of Haiku is continuing to grow and hope for more in the future.

The sea this morning,
          quiet as a
          baby's dream --
but tomorrow comes.


**

The 600 Haiku of the Carpenter
ISBN: 9781483959719
$12.95
Available from Amazon
Distributed by Ingram, so your local bookstore should be able to order it.

Duskscape

The Russian River flows into the sea,
I see the sunset close
One more day of common woes
Gold leaves fall on a red rose

Spacious

In the open grotto of emptiness
(A vastness, a hollow)
Crossing the sky a swallow
Casts a fast moving shadow

Geek and Form

Geek and Form

Yesterday I published a Fibonacci Poem called ‘Geek Poetry’.  The background of this poem consists of some conversations I recently had regarding Fibonacci poetry. 

I work at a Spiritual Book and Tea Shop.  The Book part of the shop is kind of new agey; though we strive to also have depth in each of the religious sections by including central texts of each tradition.  Still, New Age sells.  We have a section on Numerology.  Last week a customer purchased about seven books from the Numerology section, including several books that are specifically about the Fibonacci sequence and numbers.  As he was checking out we struck up a conversation; it isn’t often that someone purchases books on Fibonacci from our store and I was curious.  I mentioned that I wrote Fibonacci poems.  He was aware of Fibonacci poetry, though the customer is not himself a poet.  It turns out he is a mathematician with a focus on mathematical sequences; hence the interest in Fibonacci.  But he finds the Fibonacci poetry attractive and interesting.  Then he said, “Have you ever considered using the Lucas?”  And I got to respond, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I have written some Lucas poems.” 

The Lucas sequence is another numerical sequence generated using the same additive procedures as the Fibonacci.  The difference is that the Lucas sequence begins with the number 2 and 1, whereas the Fibonacci starts with 0 and 1.  Hence the Lucas sequence is 2 – 1 – 3 – 4 – 7 – 11 – 18, etc.  (The Fibonacci sequence is 1 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 8 – 13, etc.)  There are interesting relationships between the numbers in the Fibonacci and Lucas sequences.

Anyway, as I was saying, back to the customer, he smiled when I said I had written some Lucas poems.  Unfortunately, he had an appointment to get to, so our conversation drew to a hasty close.  But the last thing he said as he walked out the door was, “Geek poetry, I love it.”

The second conversation about Fibonacci I had was with a friend, I’ll call him George, who loves poetry and even teaches a class in poetry at a Junior College once a year.  George teaches a formless approach, or a free verse approach, to poetry because he believes introducing students to formal elements will make them feel bad about themselves.  George is a therapist by profession and views poetry as a means to a therapeutic end.  For this reason, no rules are to be introduced because it might interfere with ‘self-expression’ and the therapeutic goal. 

When I published ‘Safe Harbor’ through Createspace I gave my friend George a copy.  The second collection in the book consists of Fibonacci poems.  George asked me about them.  I told George about the Fibonacci sequence and how the numerical sequence can be applied to the syllable count to generate a formal, syllabic, structure.  George was not pleased; in fact he frowned.  He then said, “What does that do for you?”  Doesn’t that just strike you as the kind of question a therapist would ask?

My answer was general, not form specific.  I talked about how surrender to the parameters of a form focuses the mind, how it gives the poet a sense of joining a community of poets who share an interest in the form.  But from George’s point of view such a procedure is limiting; it impinges on self-expression and that is a bad thing.  As usual when it comes to poetry, George and I disagreed.

For the mathematician customer, who delights in the world of numbers, applying a numerical sequence, such as the Fibonacci or Lucas, to syllabics made immediate sense.  This is because for such a mathematician numbers are a felt presence.  Because numbers are a felt presence, and in some sense inherently esthetically attractive, it makes intuitive sense to use those numbers, and numerical sequences, for poetic purposes.  For the therapist, poetry has become completely subjective and functions as a vehicle for self-expression.  From this perspective using a specific numerical sequence, such as the Fibonacci or Lucas, subverts the therapeutic purpose because the adoption of such a sequence is not, from a therapeutic point of view, an example of self-expression; the sequence comes from ‘outside’.  This affirms what I have suspected for some years; namely that the therapeutic point of view is subversive of formal poetry in general.

The final conversation regarding Fibonacci happened just a few days ago; also at the store.  The store uses window washers who come to the store once a month.  They are a couple.  They wash most of the store windows on Main Street.  Usually the husband is the one who washes our windows.  As they have been washing our windows for over ten years I have got to know them over time.  At one point, about six years ago, I had to attend traffic school and she was also a member of the class; we got to commiserate with each other about how unfair it all was; but we also whispered funny, snarky, asides to each other during class. 

In other words, I have grown fond of both of them over the years.  This month I gave him a copy of ‘Safe Harbor’ after he washed the windows.  A few days after receiving it he dropped by to tell me how he and his wife were reading the poems to each other and enjoying them.  He mentioned specifically liking the Fibonacci group of poems.  I, of course, liked getting this kind of feedback.  I also liked that they specifically enjoyed the Fibonacci poems; not because they know about numerical sequences, but just because they liked the shape and the subject matter.  This was not a geek’s response, just the response of someone enjoying the poems as written.  And it was not a therapeutic response either; at least not in the sense that they were concerned about poetry as self-expression.

My own view, as often stated here, is that syllabic poetry is a craft; like pottery or baking or carpentry.  Composing a Fibonacci poem resembles a potter deciding to make a cup.  A cup has, broadly speaking, a form.  If a potter decides to make a cup, that decision functions to determine a large number of decisions for the potter.  Similarly, a syllabic poet crafting a poem in accordance with an objective form (a form whose parameters, or shape, are exterior to any specific poet) will yield to the shape of that form.  If a syllabic poet decides to compose a Fibonacci certain consequences follow, such as the opening very short lines.  Just as the potter accepts the limitations of what it means to shape a cup, the syllabic poet accepts the limitations of the Fibonacci (or other syllabic form).

The potter makes a cup and, hopefully, someone will be attracted to its craftsmanship and then use the cup at home, or the office, to drink from.  The syllabic poet makes a poem of a specific shape and, hopefully, others will find it attractive and enjoy reading it.  This is, I think, what keeps the syllabic poet engaged with form. 

Geek Poetry

X
Y
Counting
Conforming
It is like a game
(Ev'ry game of chess is the same?)
Some people, I suspect, think that this is kind of lame,
Counting those syllables without any sense of shame,
But it's all good, no one's to blame --

It's not about fame,
It's about
Beauty
Shape
Form

Vocabulary

In summer heat the woodland creek runs dry;
Sometimes I try to speak
But the right words that I seek
Are like dust that was concrete