Review: The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing

The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing by Richard Hugo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an interesting read covering various thoughts on poetry and writing. Are we born with a special skill to write or can it be taught? How do you write poetry and what triggers the ideas poets write about. Hugo is humorous and insightful on his thoughts about the subject. I especially enjoyed his reminiscences of his life in the war and what he experienced there and how it affected him. My favorite quote from the book: "Though, like most G.I.s, I couldn't hit a cow with a .45 if I was holding her teat, the bulge and weight of the gun in my pocket gave me a sense of security." (p79) One interesting thing he said was he believed you could only learn so much by reading, that to really learn to write, you need to just WRITE. I get caught up in reading how to write oftentimes. Perhaps now I'll force myself to spend more time actually writing instead of just talking about it.

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