The Practice of Poetry

Richard Hugo’s slim handbook on writing, The Triggering Town is always worth revisiting. The Triggering Town was first published in 1982, but his suggestions for the poetic craft are still very relevant.

One thing that makes the book so engaging is that Hugo writes with the voice of a buddy. The tone is conversational, contradictory and funny; it offers moments of clarity and encouragement. He argues for finding a writing style that is open to the obsessions and quirky tendencies of each particular writer. He also encourages writers to listen to the emotional truth of what they are trying to say without getting distracted by literal truths. This prodding towards inner revelation encompasses much of Hugo’s advice and writing philosophy. He explains that he intends his writing advice “…will lead you to yourself and the way you feel” (16). But he doesn’t say this in a touchy-feely way–his aim is authenticity, not therapy.

Hugo advises: “You hear me make extreme statements like ‘don’t communicate’ and ‘there is no reader.’ While those statements are meant as said, I presume when I make them that you can communicate and can write clear English sentences. I caution against communication because once language exists only to convey information, it is dying” (11). Dying language versus living language: for Hugo, the difference is language that sings and echoes pleasurably long after it is uttered. Twenty-six years later, this handbook still sings just right–perhaps to a Johnny Cash tune, something irreverant, like “A Boy Named Sue.”

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