HOW TO WRITE GOOD
(for Maia, age eleven)
Granddaughter I might say
read some Ernest Hemingway
A good place to start might be
“The Old Man and the Sea”
Watch how he draws arrows
pointing to an empty space
until a picture appears
If we’re going to know it
you’re going to have to show it
And if you want to say you’re sad
don’t say you’re sad – that’s bad
Try something like –
She came home after the spat
didn’t even say hello to the cat
Threw herself down
and cried her way through
two
pillows
and a mattress
until the drops began to fall
on the head
of her sister in the lower bed