I've been traveling lately, giving readings and meeting new people. Which means I am tired a lot, so tired, I sometimes feel as if there's someone else traveling and giving the readings. Meanwhile the real me is out of her body, watching and taking notes.
Occasionally, when I'm out of my body, I have a little epiphany.
Usually I just say silly things. This often happens during a Q and A session after a reading. Like the day I read with some fiction writers, and afterward an elderly man asked: Why do you write poetry instead of fiction? Especially when there's no money in it? It almost sounds to me like you could switch genres if you wanted to.
I don't know, I answered. That answer never seems to satisfy anyone. So the man asked me again. and then he asked me again. So I finally realized I had to say something.
I told him my belief that each genre is like a different kind of lover. Fiction is like a lover who talks too much in bed. My problem is that I'm sound asleep before I get to the good part. Poets, by contrast, like to get on with things.
Of course it was bullshit. And in a room full of fiction writers, I don't think it was a popular thing to say.
But I started to wonder afterwards. What if poetry were like a lover? What sort of lover would he/she be? A mistress? A spouse? A flirtatious asshole a woman can't help adoring in spite of herself?
More on this subject will follow. . .
-- Nin Andrews
