Want to see a writer flounder?
\nAsk them to pick just one favorite book.<\/p>\n
It’s a nonsense question; as easy to pick as a favorite breath of air.<\/p>\n
Far more fun to ask about their least favorites!<\/p>\n
Let them rip into some sanctimonious tract by a dead white guy,
\nor a pile of disconnected words from an alleged intellectual giant,
\nOr that fucking magical realist thing with that damned goose.<\/p>\n
But then there are the books between; not worthy of love or hate.
\nThe stories that fade and blend, authors and titles forgotten.
\nLike that one about Neo-nazis by Clancy (or a ghostwriter),
\nor the unwieldy fantasy tome where the halflings were deadly archers.<\/p>\n
But their ghosts remain with us, fragments of plot or detail,
\nphrases or images unmoored from their narratives.
\nDigested, like so many workaday meals; and made part of us.
\nEnriching our work with shades and flourishes learned
\nnot from some great master or college class,
\nbut from a book we can barely recall.
\nBy someone with the courage to write it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Want to see a writer flounder? Ask them to pick just one favorite book. It’s a nonsense question; as easy to pick as a favorite breath of air. Far more fun to ask about their least favorites! Let them rip into some sanctimonious tract by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69900,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69323\/revisions\/69900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}