Pulp
                    Diction
                    
Robert
                    Hazelton
                  
                
              
              

                

                  

                    

                    
Not
                    Quite Right
                    
Bob
                    Church
                  
                
              
              

                

                  

                    

                    
Whisper
                    Gap
                    
Jo Janoski
                  
                
              
              

                

                  

                    

                    
From
                    The Attic
                    
T. Owen
                    Stark
                  
                
              
              

                

                  

                    
Cheshire Cat
                    
Chronicles
                    
Rusty
                    Arquette
                  
                
              
              

                

                  

                    
Nothin' Better
                    
To
                    Do
                    
Billy
                    Jones
                  
                
              
              

                

                  


                  
Leftovers
                  Dan Beams
                
              
 
              

                

                  

                    
Songs
                    of
                    
the
                    Soul
                    
Harry
                    Furness
                  
                
              
              

                

                  

                    

                    
Shirley
                    Allard
                    
Publisher
                    
Editor
                  
                
              
            

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 Pulp Diction

            Twisting of words and
            turning of phrases

            by Robert Cameron Hazelton


            
 


            
Another Man's Treasures

            


            
Looking through my
            modest book collection, I am struck by just how many volumes
            of poetry have appeared over the last ten years. What was once
            mostly Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Thrillers is now easily one quarter
            verse, the majority of which are somewhat battered second hand
            books, but to me priceless treasures.

            
I'm not really sure when I started to 'get'
            poetry, in high school I never went below the surface - if it
            had rhythm it got stuck in my head, but meaning was seldom truly
            fathomed. Once I started interacting with some really talented
            people online, I began to see the variety of tools available
            to express yourself creatively, and my natural love of words
            took over.

            
One book in particular that also helped
            me expand my mind is "An Introduction To Poetry" by
            X.J. Kennedy. I found this informative marvel at a garage sale
            on a beautiful summer day several years ago. It is an older book
            but in excellent shape and I highly recommend it to anyone serious
            about being a writer/poet. I believe it is a textbook for some
            type of formal course, and is actually in pretty good shape for
            being just one year younger than myself. I have found some of
            Mr. Kennedy's poems online and was quite impressed with his deft
            use of language. Here are the closing sentences of the book "
            Pedagogy must have a stop; so must the viewing of poems as if
            their elements fell into chapters. For the total experience of
            reading a poem surpasses the mind's categories. The wind in the
            grass, says a proverb, cannot be taken into the house."

            
Another great book I found at a different
            yard sale is "A Concise Treasury of Great Poems" by
            Louis Untermeyer. The original was published in 1942 but this
            reprint I have was printed in 1961. It's beat up pretty bad on
            the corners and the pages are starting to get yellow and pull
            away from the cheap paperback binding, but it is indeed a thing
            of beauty. This terrific tome is packed with over 700 poems by
            the all time masters and some writers you may never have heard
            of. I love thumbing through the well worn pages and stopping
            on a random poem which blows me away, reminding me why I wanted
            to be a writer in the first place. Mr. Untermeyer also does brief
            introductions for each writer which are insightful and most entertaining,
            adding to the overall appeal. In honor of National Poetry Month,
            one poem in particular I'd like to share might be familiar, at
            least in part, to those that have pondered the question 'Who
            ever heard of a snozberry?'. Yes this poem was quoted by Willy
            Wonka, but more importantly, as Mr. Untermeyer points out is
            - "One of the most musical and imaginative poems about poetry
            ever written."

            
© Robert Cameron Hazelton
            2008

            
 

            

              
Ode

              Arthur O'Shaugnessy

              [1844-1881]



              We are the music makers

              and we are the dreamers of dreams,

              wandering by lone sea-breakers,

              and sitting by desolate streams;

              world-losers and world-forsakers,

              on whom the pale moon gleams:

              yet we are the movers and shakers

              of the world for ever, it seems.



              With wonderful deathless ditties

              we build up the world's great cities,

              and out of a fabulous story

              we fashion an empire's glory:

              one man with a dream, at pleasure,

              shall go forth and conquer a crown;

              and three with a new song's measure

              can trample an empire down.



              We, in the ages lying

              in the buried past of the earth,

              built Ninevah with our sighing

              and Babel itself with our mirth;

              and o'erthrew them with prophesying

              to the old of the new world's worth;

              for each age is a dream that is dying,

              or one that is coming to birth.

            
 

            
Robert Cameron Hazelton lives
            in Amsterdam, New York and writes the poetry blog  Average
            Poet.

            
For more from Robert visit his
            columns: February,
            January, December,
            November, October;
            and his poetry: December,
            November, and October. Or his online
            home.