Thornton P. Knowles On A Poet He Knew

A poet I once knew told me he was a genius. Only he knew of his genius, and now I knew it, too. I was not to pass this on because if his fellow poets knew of his gift they would be jealous. He was telling me because, as a pulp fiction writer who knew my place in the literary hierarchy, I wouldn't be envious. He was right about that. Moreover, the last thing I would want to be was a genius who wrote poetry. Any poet who thought he was a genius was, by definition, a nut case. Not long after this unpublished poet let me in on his secret, a passerby found him hanging from a tree in a public park. Don't let your children grow up to be poets. And if you can, for their own sanity, talk them out of becoming novelists as well.

Thornton P. Knowles