Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009

Thanks for the note, Jeanne. I learned a lot about prosody
from reading his pages quite a while back. He wrote some fine
poetry in his own right. Come to think about it, he is the only
one I know who continued to use WordStar way, way after
they went out of business. He will be missed. One of the
quotes of his I like most is the reason for writing poetry:

"If you persist, however, you will know
why I did, the first time one of your poems
sings back at you."

His Ten Rules for perspiring poets is also of interest:

 1.  Make certain your readers understand that, with five billion
people on the planet, your feeling is perfectly unique.  If your poem
does not say this, your explanatory prelude must.

 2.  Make certain your readers understand that, while the species has
been making arts for 27,000 years (that we know of), your feeling has
never before been experienced.  If your poem does not say this, your
explanatory prelude must.

 3.  Make certain your readers understand that your feeling is both
too unique and too novel to be couched in the standard language of any
country or people.  If your poem does not say this, your explanatory
prelude must.

 4.  Make certain your readers understand that, while you may
condescend to use their pathetic attempt at a language, you must alter
its spelling and punctuation according to the dictates of your
most-novel and -unique feeling.  If your poem does not say this, your
explanatory prelude must.

 5.  Make certain your readers understand that their pathetic rules
concerning sound and form, and their effect on rhetorical period, have
nothing to do with the expression of your feeling, since your feeling
is so unique and novel as to be utterly unaffected by the manner of
delivery.  If your poem does not say this, your explanatory prelude
must.

 6.  Make certain your readers understand that any who do not
understand the finer points of your feeling, including especially that
it unique and novel, is a troll.  If your poem does not say this, your
explanatory prelude must.

 7.  Make certain your readers understand that your feeling is so
pure that any rules of language or techniques of poetry would only
sully it.  If your poem does not say this, your explanatory prelude
must.

 8.  Make certain your readers understand that you, yourself, are so
unique and novel, but especially so pure, as to have no need of any
technique discovered by lesser masters.  If your poem does not say
this, your explanatory prelude must.

 9.  Make certain your readers understand that nobody can read your
poem, or understand your unique and novel feeling, nor especially its
purity, without your personal intervention and help given in several
sessions to their pathetic inabilities to read their own language.  If
your poem does not say this, your explanatory prelude must.

10.  Make certain your readers understand that your pure spirit will
be available eternally to help those pathetic trolls understand your
unique and novel feeling, and personally chastise those who just don't
get it.  If your poem does not say this, you have endless space on
UseNet to explain this at length, especially if your poem can't.