‘No lyric has ever stopped a tank,’ so said Seamus Heaney. Auden said that ‘poetry makes nothing happen.’ Bullshit! I reject all that wholeheartedly! What do they know about the mechanics of tanks? How can anyone estimate the ballistic qualities of words? Invisible things happen in intangible moments. What should keep us writing is precisely […]
Tag: writers
Letters to a Young Writer (Colum McCann)
“The truth is that nobody can teach you how to write,” writes Colum McCann near the end of Letters to a Young Writer. The next paragraph of this review will teach you how to write. Keep revising your language to make it more specific to the situation and character. If Sarah is nervous, your first […]