Why I don't like poetry

Confession: It's hard to make me mad. Sometimes I wonder if that just means I'm a pushover.

Reading:

• "Riding the Doghouse" by Randy DeVita
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold"
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"

Future Projects:

• Dairhenien's Library - Development
  
• Floorcraft - First rewrite of 1-5, first draft of 6-8
• Ferian Fetlock - "Ferian Fetlock Takes a Wife."
  
• "Motley" - Expansion
• "Fireworks and Earthworks" - 5% into first draft
  
• Untitled School Mistress Story

Unpublished Stories/Status (in chronological order of completion of first draft)

• "Pictures of the Old Port" - 5th Draft, Unsubmitted
• "What Price Stamps" - 3rd Draft, Submitted to The American Drivel Review, July 30th, 2008
  
• "The Frost Fugling" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Black Pudding" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Cora and the Sea" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Motley" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Leaves and Sunsets" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "A Happy Ending" - 1st Draft, Unsubmitted
• "The Revenant" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Illuminated" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "A Cup of Coffee" / "Morning Tea" - 2nd Draft, Submitted to Tea: A Magazine, July 29th, 2008
• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Hattie Donnelly's Favorite Doll" - 2nd Draft, Submitted to 24 Hour Short Story Contest, July 27th, 2008

The header of my blog claims that I'm allergic to poetry, but that's not really true. There are poems that I like, usually the shorter, the better. I have "Jabberwocky" memorized, and in general, I like the poetry of Lewis Carroll and Ogden Nash.

You know what? I'm not a fan of non-fiction either. I don't read the newspaper, I skim it. I do the same to the internet. In fact, the only text I really read in detail is fiction. I think it's because I like the story, like the way I get carried along on a journey.

With non-fiction, it's about fact and opinion and the dance they do around each other. Skimming is usually sufficient to glean facts, and I'm good enough at language to detect most of the times that someone is trying to influence my opinion on something.

With poetry, though, skimming doesn't suffice. You have to go deep and savor it, but I just get bored. I was listening to some poetry read aloud tonight, and I found my ear attracted to the cleverly phrased bits, but at the end, I felt like I had missed a lot. I would have had to go back and studied it in detail to really appreciate it.

In other words, if I have to think about it slower than it is read aloud, I don't want any part of it. The poets I mentioned above tell stories with their poetry, or tell it in such a way that no in depth review is necessary. I like that.

Perhaps that's why I'm not fond of James Joyce either. Each sentence is like an entire buffet reduced to pill form. I get full too quick.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 3