Yeah, Carl, the poem comes off as a hollowed-out, an unfulfilled form. Here on the Sphere, one may garner positive comments on one's workmanlike adherence to form, but really that's just shoptalk and it begs the question of what it is that makes a poem. Too often we succeed only in the mechanics of the language, and lose sight of what it is a poem must conjure to be memorable. Trying to write a free verse poem often frustrates me: I need the unexpected associations of a formal device in order to stimulate me, and yet those formal devices alone can't replace inspiration. Everyone, of course, has a differing level of tolerance for formal constraints, but at a certain point they can become detrimental to expression. Our workshops carry the echoes of many such poems, bouncing off its walls, making a lot of scannable noise, signifying next to nothing. More and more often I try to start with a mood, rather than a form. Then I begin to measure and map the mood.
Nemo
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