howwwwwwwwwwwwwwllllllllllllllllllll!!!!

"Charlie Wilkes" wrote


It's poetry. Where you bean? Blank verse, whatever it is
called. Very cutting edge when he started out.

It's surely not blank verse. Shakespeare wrote in blank verse. But,
you can style it as free verse and no one can argue because the rules
don't really exist.

Hee! BUSTED! I always confused the two terms, "blank verse"
and "free verse." *hanging my head* I think I even missed them
on tests.

I would call it prose disguised as poetry, which
is what I think of a lot of poetry from the past 90 years or so.
World War I is the great dividing line. BUT, there are people who
know far more than I do, who would vigorously dispute many of my
views.

I just like powerful words. Even better if they have some built-in
rhythm. Actually, Cummings was good at that, despite his annoying
"anti-convention" conventions like the lower case.

While I appreciate "craft" very much (and I am discussing my betters
in all of even the worst examples I might give) I do think beautiful and
true (or just artful) things can be said without relying too much on
artificial form. "Iambic pentameter," etc. (That's the only term I recall,
Muhaha!) That said, I am a major Edgar Allan Poe freak and I even
like ... hold on to your gag reflex ... T. S. Eliot.



That title is what I mean when I describe Bukowski as a self-styled
literary persona. He tried to communicate what it ~feels~ like to be
a writer, the way Feynman tried to communicate what it ~feels~ like to
be a physicist. Which is not to say that Bukowski wasn't a good
writer or that Feynman wasn't a good physicist. Both had their craft
well in hand.


Ahh, I see. I am going to save that up and think about it tomorrow
when my poor little brain is not so shriveled.

"cybercat" wrote in message
...

That title is what I mean when I describe Bukowski as a self-styled
literary persona. He tried to communicate what it ~feels~ like to be
a writer, the way Feynman tried to communicate what it ~feels~ like to
be a physicist. Which is not to say that Bukowski wasn't a good
writer or that Feynman wasn't a good physicist. Both had their craft
well in hand.


Ahh, I see. I am going to save that up and think about it tomorrow
when my poor little brain is not so shriveled.



Well, I thought about it and just want to say, "Yep." Excellent
observation. I had not realized that, but thinking back, it really
is true.