I have been urged many, many times NOT to go into extensive explanatory stuff about a poem, especially early on.
A reader (Simon) indicated he did not get an image. I could have taken a paragraph or two to add this or that detail, but I feared this would've looked like I was trying to justify the poem, trying to explain in notation what the poem had failed to say in its lines.
I tried to find the briefest, quickest way to answer his implied question. I should also mention that I had posted this previously to Desert Moon and got some comments on the final stanza (of the immediately earlier draft) from several poets there.
Simon indicated quite plainly that I was, in effect, via my prompt, brief note to him, calling him an idiot. Simon is not an idiot, and I am neither, as Simon implied, a boor nor a jerk. However, in my ethical frame of reference Simon did throw the first stone here.
I felt -- and still feel -- that that stone sullied the thread. I pulled the poem, and would do so again.
I am not seeking an apology from Simon, no offering one. Ultimately, this isn't about who's right or who's wrong. This is about one particular way a thread can get spoiled.
Fred
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