Some of the things I like about poetry and fiction.

For the most part, I don’t like ambiguity in a poem. I don’t go out of my way to be tidy, but I don’t want my readers guessing at what I intended. Leeway in interpretation isn’t a bad thing. It allows for individuals to connect with a piece, but I don’t like the idea of anyone scratching their heads in frustration or working too hard to find whatever tidbits of comprehension there are to be had. I think writing is about getting a point across and if your audience is lost, you have failed as a writer. Discerning the depth and layers of poetry is work, but it shouldn’t be impossible.

I like to believe that poetry and prose are more interlinked than people tend to think. When I write a story, the lines have a certain rhythm and pacing. I like the work to sing. There’s always a poetic element that I think makes the work come alive. It provides more than just words on a page. There’s an animation in the construction that carries us along like the crest of a wave and brings us to the end of the journey either by dashing us on the rocks or depositing us gently on the shore.

As far as rhyming is concerned, I tend to like random, intermittent rhymes within a piece rather than end rhymes. Sometimes end rhymes work quite well, but they seem to take more thought than I like to devote to accomplish as more than a limerick. Just not my style, but I’ve always liked the sound of words and the way they intermingle—they way they roll off the tongue and mix in the mouth.

Lastly, I think poetry should have a connection in the heart as well as the mind. It should be about love won and lost, silly unimportant things, and humanity in general. But most of all, it should be about Love. Because, after all, isn’t everything we do always about Love?