Articulating a Manifesto (part 3)

For me: for my writing, my poems. As for others, bring them on—the more varied the better. I’ll gladly read them. One thing I have learned the past several months is a new respect for different poets and differing poetics. And although there is much I may not understand, and some with which I’ll disagree, I look forward to encountering all of it.

I blogged Thoreau tonight: “The most valuable communication or news consists of hints and suggestions. When a truth comes to be known and accepted, it begins to be bad taste to repeat it. Every individual constitution is a probe employed in a new direction, and a wise man will attend to each one’s report.” Amen!

I tire of the debate between formalism and free verse. I yawn at the talk of mainstream versus avant garde. It’s just evidence of the worst of politics polluting the best of poetry. I may write a certain way (for now) but it doesn’t mean I need to read that same way.  Nor does it mean I need to cast some poetics vote today, or in November. I can choose them all, or leave some be. Whatever it takes.