Writing very bad poetry requires talent. It helps to have a wooden ear for words, a penchant for sinking into a mire of sentimentality, and an enviable confidence that allows one to write despite absolutely appalling incompetence.
The 131 poems collected in this first-of-its-kind anthology are so glaringly awful that they embody a kind of genius. From Fred Emerson Brooks' "The Stuttering Lover" to Matthew Green's "The Spleen" to Georgia Bailey Parrington's misguided "An Elegy to a Dissected Puppy", they mangle meter, run rampant over rhyme, and bludgeon us into insensibility with their grandiosity, anticlimax, and malapropism.
Guaranteed to move even the most stoic reader to tears (of laughter), Very Bad Poetry is sure to become a favorite of the poetically inclined (and disinclined).
Kathryn Petras is half of a sibling writing team, along with her brother, Ross Petras, with over 4.8 million copies of their work in print—including popular “word nerd” books such as the New York Timesbestseller You’re Saying It Wrong, That Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means, Very Bad Poetry, and Awkword Moments. The duo host the podcast “You’re Saying It Wrong” with NPR affiliate KMUW.
The Petras's work has been featured in, diverse media outlets including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Bustle, the Atlantic Monthly, the London Times, and McSweeney’s. They have also been guests on hundreds of radio shows as well as television shows and networks, including NPR's Here and Now, Good Morning America, CNN, and Fox & Friends.
Ross Petras is half of a sibling writing team, along with his sister, Kathy Petras, with over 4.8 million copies of their work in print—including popular “word nerd” books such as the New York Times bestseller You’re Saying It Wrong, That Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means, Very Bad Poetry, and Awkword Moments. The duo host the podcast “You’re Saying It Wrong” with NPR affiliate KMUW.
The Petras's work has been featured in diverse media outlets including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Bustle, the Atlantic Monthly, the London Times, and McSweeney’s. They have also been guests on hundreds of radio shows as well as television shows and networks, including NPR's Here and Now, Good Morning America, CNN, and Fox & Friends.
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