Poetry springs from something deeper; it’s beyond intelligence…It’s a thing of its own; it has a nature of its own.
Category: Blog
I had a good weekend.
If you'll forgive me breaking character.
Come join me under the moon in gratitude and peace.— Franklyn Monk (@fqmonk) March 30, 2015
Mark Twain: Quote
Words are only painted fire ; a look is the fire itself.
The Critic Frank O'Hara
Etymological Fallacy
The group most at risk for falling prey to the etymological fallacy are poets. It’s easy to see why. Poetry begins with an a priori fallacy, the proposition that words have magical powers.
Hey, I enjoy chanting around a fire and spinning in circles as much as the next freak. But the things we chant, albethey magical, are not words. Words are those things we use in everyday life to navigate our personal narratives, to build shared-realities, and to negotiate the concrete.
They’re not magic, they’re a tool. A tool we picked or happened across. A tool that allows us to explore the unknown, to catch a glimpse of the magical, but not magic in themselves.
If you rely on your audience knowing the ancient magical ember at the root of a word, we’re gonna have a bad time.