ADVICE TO FICTION WRITERS

for Madison Smartt Bell

   If it’s not real for you, the writer, then
   no readers either will themselves believe
   the fiction you have flowing from your pen:
   stillborn will be the stories you conceive.

   No, your imagination must become
   intimate with every aspect
   of your invented world and even plumb
   the depths of souls for readers to connect.

   Said Frost, “A poem must not mean but be”;
   just so for fiction, working to compel
   its readers to perceive reality
   where only words exist, casting their spell.

       If “acting is believing,” as they say,
       likewise for writing, when you’ve found your way.

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