Rhyme Time

[Bill Crider]

There's an article in the new issue of Mystery Scene about crime writers who started out to be poets. Sadly, my name isn't mentioned, though my first publications were poems. I published in several "little" magazines, and I even got paid for poems published in The Runner and Grit. I still write a poem now and then.

So 'fess up, now. How many poets are there among us? I know, for example, that Donna Moore has a poem coming up in next month's EQMM.

[Donna Moore]

Reed Farrel Coleman is a wonderful poet, as is Ken Bruen. I think Peter Spiegelman writes/wrote poetry too.

I'm most definitely NOT a poet! I write stupid stuff. And my non poem is the next Mystery Scene, rather than EQMM.

[Bill Crider]

Oops. Well, I knew that poem was appearing somewhere. Anyway, the article in MS mentions Reed, Ken, and Peter. Their panel at Bouchercon was the impetus for the article. And I'm sure your poem is very funny, not to mention poetic.

[Donna Moore]

Ah, OK. I don't have my copy yet so I haven't seen that. Of course, my favourite poets are Edward Gorey, Hillaire Belloc, Dr Seuss, Edward Lear, Dorothy Parker and Mr Dirty Limerick, so that tells you where my tastes lie :o)

[Stephen Blackmoore]

My first published writing was a poem in Clean Sheets Magazine a few years ago. I like writing poetry because I can play with it more than fiction. Not saying that it's more or less limiting than fiction, just that I find it more flexible. I don't have to worry about grammar so much. I can make it as visceral as I want, play with meter and flow. It's all images and ideas, half formed flashes that don't have to be spelled out to have an impact.

Of course, my favorite poet is the capital letter eschewing ee cummings, so I don't exactly worry about things like "structure" too much.

[Bill Crider]

I like a lot of cummings' work. "and that is hows/to hump a cows."

[Karyn J. Powers]

Me, too. Lots of poems published, one small chap book out there on labs. Just had a poem recognized at the Writers' Institute in Madison, WI. I think the two areas compliment each other. And truth be told, I sometimes work on poetry when my story line is stuck.

[Bill Crider]

I knew I wouldn't be the only one.

[Bill Crider]

I like those books. And Richard Hugo wrote a mystery novel, too, though I believe it was completed by someone else.

[Bill Crider]

I'm sorry I missed you, too, but that was one crowded room. Anyway, I have a small stash of unpublished poems, and I might start a poetry blog someday. I'm too lazy to try sending them away for publication.

[Don Anderson]

I believe James Sallis has also published a collection of poems.

[Bill Crider]

Sallis is a fine poet.

[Barbara Fister]

James W. Hall and John Harvey both started as poets.