News at Eleven: For an author to sit down alone

in a room with the intention of writing a poem or a story, which will be read by the whole world--in a dream, in a dream!--is a radical act, an act of belief in his powers, and in his individuality, and in the importance of his images and their coherence.

Once a story is begun, it follows a logical progression--Bob and Betty meet, there are obstacles to their love, they do or don't surmount them, and then they absorb the blow, good or bad. A poem is wilder, less rational, and driven by language rather than by narrative. Poems are sound devices, image devices, with the narrative very much subordinate. Think of an opera, where the recitative must be poetically true, and true as a narrative--but where the music carries the day.

from Granta: Daniyal Mueenuddin

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