The Wise Reader’s Guide to Identifying Good Writers

You read something you like.

You see your world in it.

Something in it rings true.

You know nothing about

The person who wrote it,

So you look the name up.

You don’t like what you find.

This person was not good—

Maybe bad behaviors,

Maybe awful habits,

Maybe offensive creeds,

Maybe part of a group

You code as enemies

Of your group, groups like yours—

So now what do you do?

How bad could someone be,

When the writing is good?

How good could writing be,

If the person who wrote

All that good stuff is bad?

How good or bad are you

For reading and liking?

You know you’re predisposed

To admire writing more

When you feel good about

Admiring the writer,

And it’s nothing to do

With the particular

Ways you parse bad and good.

Hero writers for some

Are outlaws to others,

If not outright loathsome.

You must choose carefully,

Until you trust yourself

Not to mistakenly

Like someone you don’t like.