Scott's Position on Poetry t has puzzled scholars for decades what position, exactly, Rettberg was really taking on poetry . On the one hand, he often feigned disdain for the stuff of meter and line breaks, but on the other hand, he privately often confessed that he wished that he himself were a poet. And made public statements to that effect. As well as the opposite. All we can do here is look into these contrapuntal quotations.
Poetry is what distinguishes good prose from bad prose.
By this I mean a certain attentiveness to the composition of the individual line, an awareness that all writing is writing metaphor, and also that language is not a mere utility, which can move us from plot point A to plot point B, but that words are living things , that there are rhythms in every line, that there should be music in every living sentence. This is what the poets teach us. I think he's nearly ready to begin writing some decent prose. Poets can spend all day on one word. If I did that, people would think I was a slacker .