Curtis, I think your bone/ash dilemma will run and run - abstract or symbolic? You can make your case to the poet, but they're not going to blush at their blunder. I guess just as some metaphors are deader than others, so are some symbols.
For years now I've railed against ... yes, I have subjects like that too - usually they were initially pointed out to me in my stuff and I've taken revenge. I used to write things like "the pale dawn of longing" until someone pointed
out that not only the content (I could cope with that) but also the structure had been done to death. That particular structure's been on my hit-list ever since.
Maybe the fact that most of the poetry here is foreign to an Englander like me affects my "alien aesthetics" stance.
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