Monday, January 01, 2024

New in 2024: arguably vain

Skip this one arguably
vain. It's more a mnemonic
than an attempt to move
you, but it is a poem

and sincere.
New thing!

in 2024: Not a new
year's resolution,
not a hoax, not a
dream: partly as a trick

to trim/edit, partly as a GOOSE
to conversation (which has long
and sadly flagged since

I once abandoned this place, years ago), I propose

to redact
less-than-top material!
- musings, and commentary from
within the poem - as I go
a-composing.

- AND -
reposition such takings and leavings, these things
cut, left out - as "comments"
UNDER
the poem!

Why not? A little light 
tweaking, some tonal adjustment 
- such things could easily be 

comments 

UPON the poem, rather than 
vain and egregious, excessive 
ornament and digression WITHIN.

It. Tad dastardly, sure
- I warrant, but I hold myself
free to do it

in this place.

Might
make the
pruning and tuning
a bit more keyed-in,
as we go, or
as I go. As one prefers.
Or anyway, if I remember it

to do it, 

that's the idea

Also: maybe cut down on 
prose poems 

whose sole purpose 
is mnemonic? 

Too easy for dear reader 
to mistake a pat, plain practical
mnemonic 

for overly vain
"self-indulgence"

merely because an aspect 
of self-referential-ness 
may be shared between 
these two otherwise 

quite different things 

WELL.

Well, I say: if it fruits 
and boots (if it be not 
fruitless and bootless) 

THEN IT AIN'T VAIN

1 comment:

  1. I might also begin experimenting more with deliberate external rhyme." I.e. a rhyme scheme or beat picked up and carried on from one poem to the next. You know. Just a lil' bonus "easter egg" scheme for serial readers! A little bonus jiggle in your context keyhole!

    That is, if I remember this intention later, as we go.

    We'll see what happens.

    ReplyDelete

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