Monday, July 09, 2007

Bad Poet

Stan Rice. He was the husband of Ann Rice, now he's dead. He was the head of the creative writing department at San Francisco State University, and published before she did, so it was not a matter of coat-tails-riding.

Some of his poetry is so close to really good, then he'll throw in a line like :

The Zodiac in Haemoraging.

Or he'll write something like:

In Heaven
the roach
is a jewel....

...Which is almost good. But not quite. I have bought every one of his books. Partly to make myself feel better, partly to make myself mad. Mostly to write counter-poems in the margins.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That would be something he has in common with his wife who often, almost, accidentally gets a vampire myth right and then veers off at the end in a way that makes it clear that the near accuracy was purely by chance.