BOOK LORA ZILL , THE BLUE COLLAR ARTIST, AS A SPEAKER FOR YOUR EVENT
Parsing Language
Parsing Language
EDITOR’S ARIA (Published in each issue of Time Of Singing)
THE FIRST WRITING CONFERENCE I EVER ATTENDED 25 years ago or so the keynote speaker said, “If you are writing prose, learn to write poetry because it will teach you to choose just the right word.” Of course I said, “AMEN!”
I make it a goal to use poetry to teach prose writing. I use examples like imagery used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” sound in Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” and sound and images from Christy by Catherine Marshall. I mention Dean Koontz uses blank verse in his novels.
I also use Brian Moon’s exercise from Studying Poetry (NCTE Chalkface Series, 2001). Moon uses Sylvia Plath’s “Mushrooms.” He deletes a word every few lines and gives three to choose from to fill in the blank. For example, stanza two reads: Our toes, our noses/Take hold on the loam, ___________ the air, with these choices: inhale/acquire/snatch. Students have to consider many attributes: sound, context, imagery, rhythm, and flow. Then I ask “Why” they chose that word and wonderful discussion ensues. At the end I read the original and we see who came the closest to Plath. Getting the “correct” word isn’t important to me, it’s understanding how language works.
Or course, prose writers can’t parse every word in a 40,000 word novel like poets can and should in their work! But I think the more we expose ourselves to language the more intuitive its use becomes. I can often tell if a novelist also writes poetry or at least understands how to use its tools.
I hope you are continuing in your intuitive feel for language.
Wishing you and yours the very best.
Lora Homan Zill, Editor
