Interesting take on the poem, Michael. I think you're right: something like this certainly doesn't require the same amount of plain ordinary crafting that most poetry does-- at least the kind of poetry that comes complete with syntax and punctuation. On the other hand, Francis's word-choices are pretty fresh, pretty interesting . . . those last two couplets in particular are undeniably evocative.
But on the third hand, lists and collections of subject-specific terminology is pretty easily come by these days. If I Googled, for example, "figure skating", I could probably find a couple dozen trochees in two minutes that would serve a similar purpose. In fact, maybe somebody on the list has actually used this approach, and come up with something worthy. If so, please say so!
Anybody else want to try one? (You, Michael? Feel like wasting a few hours Googling?) And Katy, if you still have a copy of your Hudson River Valley poem, please consider posting it.
Meanwhile, it looks like "Musing on the Masters" will not be the right forum for this topic. I think I'll waltz the entire thing over to Drills and Amusements, even though it might lack the intrinsic hilarity of re-writing song lyrics. Further discussion of the Francis poem will still be welcome over there, of course.
Marilyn
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