Curtis
The martial arts instructor I learned most from once said, 'Many paths, one mountain'.
I don't consider myself far up the path of poetry, but I agree there are many elements of equal importance. I hope to attack each one with the same vigor I'm currently applying to meter. That's just the part of the mountain I'm on now - the foundation (or foothills, if you will).
As you said, it must come in stages. Sometimes, too, we get stuck on a plateau and feel we can go no higher, then we round a corner and behold new heights.
Finally, I think the day comes when the writer performs without conscious thought of the elements - and that's when 'voice' unfolds. I eagerly await the day *grin*.
I currently think I'm writing my best in the gray area between FV and metrical - I don't think about form or structure - but concentrate on sound and metaphor. It's amazing though, I'm starting to see the substructure automatically forming itself without conscious thought. It's still an effort, however, to attempt playing against the meter, which I believe is the art of meter.
Perhaps, too, we've beaten the metrical horse into the virtual ground.
Why don't you start a thread on language? It's starting to interest me, and I can use a break from the metrical studies for a while.
Jerry
(the same one)
[This message has been edited by Jerry Glenn Hartwig (edited December 29, 2002).]
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