Poet's Workshop

photo by Gerry Williams

The Poetry Workshop Presents Wanna See Something Really Scary? by Terrie Leigh Relf ©2003 All rights reserved

Imagine John Lithgow writing a series of poems about his multiple character roles in Twilight Zone, The Movie. If that doesn’t scare you, then dust off your old copy of The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Begin with William Blake’s "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", then read excerpts from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s "Prometheus Unbound". Follow this with one of my personal favorites, Robert Browning’s "Porphyria’s Lover". If it’s dark outside, and you’re feeling a wee bit frightened, I suggest you take the flashlight under the bed to read another one of my personal favorites, Christina Rossetti’s "Goblin Market".

Now it’s time to get a good night’s sleep. In the morning, pull out that less dusty collection by American poet, Edgar Allan Poe. I suggest reading him by daylight, preferably with someone else in the house to protect you. Unless, of course, you’re very, very brave. Better yet, have someone else sitting close by. Horror loves company. Have them read to you (the better to hear you scream…) No doubt your terror will know new heights as your heart goes thu-thump, thu-thump as if it’s been removed from your body and buried beneath your bedroom floor.

Still with me?

Bring in graveyards, mausoleums, dark and stormy nights, vampires, zombies, ghouls and ghosts. Add a bit of gore, an awful stench, the sound of something scuttling.

Doesn’t faze you a bit, does it?

Then what about being buried alive or tortured? Betrayed? Something’s scratching at the window. The phone is dead. The lights go out.

Admit it. You’re scared! You’re fascinated with this fear, too. Compelled. Are you sick and twisted? A member of a perverted group of social outcasts?

No, you’re in excellent company. You’re a horror poet.

But why the fascination? Is it catharsis? Are horror poets writing out their demons? Purging themselves of their shadow sides? Or are they spiritual healers, medicine people, or exorcists who reach into your body to pull out evil spirits?

Brian Knight, horror writer (check out his newly released short story collection, Dragonfly, which has been nominated for a Bram Stoker award!), had this to say about horror poets (stay tuned for an indepth interview with him in Feb. 2003):

Horror poets have it much harder I think. Horror is one of the strongest base emotions, but we live in a world that has been desensitized to a great degree. I know - I watched my two-year-old daughter laugh her head off during the "Pea Soup" scene in The Exorcist. People just do not scare as easily as they used to. Imagine trying to make someone shiver with 20 well-chosen words. Easier said than done, my friend.

I’d like to leave you with these two poems by Knight to illustrate some of the many faces of horror.

Eater Of Children

The world is an ugly, ravenous monster,
It gobbles up our little children,
And shits out adults.
Our own flesh and blood,
Raised to feed the beast.

I look at him with a forced smile,
"My boy, you are growing up so fast."
But what I think is,
"Stand tall my son – put on a brave face and get in line.
It’s your turn to die."

Paranoid – 5th Floor Blues

I sit on my 5th floor balcony taking names and notes,
Faces hidden behind sunglasses and smirks, shaded by baseball caps,
Government Monkeys talking into their shoulders,
Chain-smoking another pack of cigarettes – they are watching me.

Mom is with them now – she’s come by again,
While I’m sleeping, showering, shitting,
The man next door has a copy of my room key,
For a blowjob he lets her in.

She wants to find my little red book,
I wish she would leave me alone,
She steals my brandy and cigarettes,
They want to know the things I know.

What are you afraid of? Write about it, then send it to me… terrie@writersmonthly.com
I’ll be watching you, so be sure to close those curtains…

Q&A

Several people have written to ask me how to "make a living as a poet". While definitions of "making a living" vary, here are a few ideas to get started:

• teach poetry
• facilitate poetry workshops
• be a poetry coach
• sign up for Slams and win prizes
• compile your poetry in a book-length manuscript and get it published
• get your name on one of those "best-seller" lists
• have regular speaking engagements and charge a lot of money
• Be a visiting poet at a prestigious university where they give you room, board, internet access, and a stipend for printer ribbons, postage, and paper
• Be a poet-in-the-schools
• win major contests on a regular basis
• sell your poetry to family, friends, and that English teacher who said, "you’re a good poet"
• find a benefactor
• get a grant
• become poet laureate
• join with other poets to create an on-or-off-line publication where you charge big bucks for advertising
• write greeting cards
• write poetry-to-order
• put your poetry to music and become a (insert favorite form of music here) star
• climb into that time machine, travel back to the proverbial "good old days" when kings and queens had court poets
• invest the money you earn from selling poetry so that your poems gain more interest
• become a poetry marketing guru
• learn how to accept rejection because it is a "numbers" game (Go to http://www.rejectioncollection.com for inspiration!)
• put your poetry on T-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, and all those other blank canvasses (I hope I don’t need to tell you to do this yourself so that some organization who shall remain nameless doesn’t profit from your work)

It’s true that some of the above are more easily said than done, but I always say, "think big!" The only thing standing between you and success is belief. (Ok, that and a few editors, etc.) The important thing to keep writing, be persistent, and don’t give up. You may be the poet who alters the "profession" (and this is one of the oldest professions, in case you were wondering). But please, please, please don’t quit your day—or night job—to become a poet. "Just" be a poet!

Here’s a question for you:
If you never made money as a poet, would you still write poetry? If you answered, "no", then I have to tell you that you may not be a poet. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re not compelled to write, if you don’t sacrifice so you can write, if you don’t think about writing more than you think about "other things", then perhaps you may want to try fiction (Important Note: The same rules apply here as well. Sorry.).

Get the picture?

Seriously, though, there’s hope. You don’t need to postpone this until vacation time or until you retire. Yes, you can write poetry on a regular basis and still hold down a "regular" job (whatever that is…) Well, some people can. For example, to support my poetry habit, I teach part-time and have a freelance writing/editing/coaching business.

Yes, I give it away for free, but I’ve also been paid for poetry. The most I’ve received for a single poem is about $30. The least, zero. Lots of zeros…(oh that they followed a double or triple-digit figure!). But I’m not complaining. Really I’m not. Does this mean that I don’t want to be paid for poetry, that it’s some self-less, altruistic act? Of course not. I can’t even begin to tell you how selfish I am--especially with my poetry-writing time (which is when I should probably be sleeping, but that’s another story).

There’s nothing like the winning of a "poem of the month" contest or that e-mail from an editor at another publication you admire saying, "we want it!" Another great rush is when someone comes up to you after a reading and says they love your stuff, or that you inspired them to start writing again. Then there’s the awesome people who publish your first collection, the second, the third…

That’s why I write poetry.

Ok, I also write poetry because I’m shameless--
support this poet and buy a copy of Lap Danced by the Muse!

Feeling Brave? Check out these sites!

But be sure to bolt your doors and windows, keep the lights on, and your snuggly teddy bear in close proximity! Remember to follow the links on their pages, too. There’s a multiverse of horror out there…

For the scholarly among you, I suggest the MIT Libraries Subject Guides’ "Literature Sources". You can conduct research on a variety of subject areas. Follow the links to Gothic literature, but I suggest beginning here:
http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/literature/renaissance.html

Brian Knight’s site:
www.brian-knight.com

This site has excellent commentary as well as a "must read" glossary: Gothic Literature: What the Romantic Writers Read
http://www2.gasou.edu/facstaff/dougt/gothic.htm

The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore:
http://www.eapoe.org/

Poe’s Virtual Library
http://www.comnet.ca/~forrest/library.html

The Work of Edgar Allan Poe
http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/poe/Work.html

This site features links to a variety of sources. There’s even some choice bits from Horror novelist, Dougg Clegg.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/4464/links.html

For some of my personal favorites (and they’re also considered some of the hottest horror poets around) visit Dark Regions. You’ll recognize Bruce Boston, David Kopaska-Merkel, Deborah Kolodji and more!
http://darkregions.hypermart.net

David Kopaska Merkel’s Dreams and Nightmares Magazine: http://home.earthlink.net/~dragontea/

Visit Eat Ink: For Boys and Girls who like to read for a great essay on what to do and not do when writing horror poetry:
http://www.sff.net/people/timpratt/freshgraves.html

For a historical perspective, visit The Horror Timeline by David Carroll and Kyla Ward
http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline1.html

Robert Browning
http://65.107.211.206/rb/rbov.html

More on Browning at the Academy of American Poets’ Poetry Exhibits:
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=185