“Writing Dollars and Sense,” by Daniel Holland
Should I write a story
with big words that pays big money?
Or, should I write this story
that is worth only five cents
but makes sense to me?
Should I write a story
with big words that pays big money?
Or, should I write this story
that is worth only five cents
but makes sense to me?
In an article originally published in American Poet, the biannual journal published by the Academy of American Poets for its members, Eavan Boland talked about a “transnational poetics.” I was particularly fascinated by her comparison and contrast of American and Irish culture and the poetic communities each country fostered–and how this shaped the poetry that…
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Poet, essayist, translator, teacher. W. S. Di Piero says it best: “I’m not an intellectual poet. I write mostly out of nerve and instinct. It’s all a process of taking in the intensities of life and bringing them over into the intensities of words. I’ve believed from the beginning that poetry exists not to simplify…
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Daniel, you strike to the heart of the quasi-professional writer’s dilemna. I’ve always chosen to write the story that makes sense to me. I believe it is possible to do both–make both sense and cents…it’s an acquired skill.