August 28, 2013

The Lyric Essay.

"The self is central to literature but [the] self is made up of all the literature it has taken in." 

Joey Franklin



I'm taking this advanced non-fiction class where all we do is strip our writing down to its bones with what's called a lyric essay. It is terrifying stuff, but oh, it is stunning. 

Here's an example of a lyric essay I read today, about a man's experience in Paris as he stepped off the metro. He said he saw beautiful face after beautiful face and literally could not find words worthy enough or as lovely as the sudden emotion he felt, so he wrote this: 

"The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, black bough." 

And that's it.
That's a lyric essay. 
Doesn't it just make you feel?

3 comments:

  1. You changed your blog name and I lost you! It was so sad. But I found you again, so it's fine.

    Anyway, that's kind of amazing. It's so easy to write fluff, but trimming it down to the core is always so moving. Very cool class. haha I wanna come.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is all kinds of awesome, I kind of want to take this class now x

    ReplyDelete

i like words. and you. write me a few?