David, I agree completely about the value and importance of practicing forms. In fact, on occasion I've annoyed stu-dents expecting that a creative writing class will be a good place to Express Deep Thoughts by telling that I'm not after Deep Thoughts, but skill. It's hard, at first, getting them to let go and play without feeling duty-bound to say something serious and "valuable"! After a while, of course, they do, and then they're hooked. And then they have the forms, as you say, just in case "valuable" comes along some day. What takes time to learn is throwing away the exercises afterward--except for those very few that actually seem to become poems.
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