on Exchange

I wrote this poem, and then I thought, oh dear God, I'm getting into that violent stuff again. Unlike a lot of my poetry, this is not related to anything in my life. The starting line comes from the liner notes of the Minuit album 88. I liked the image, and it occured to me that it fit iambic tetrameter. It is hard to resist a metered line, and I automatically tried to follow it. I am afraid in such times my tendancy is to the gothic. It's easy, it's fun, and it makes people worry about you.

I had not been writing poetry recently, and you can blame this rennaisance on Dan Simmons and his sci-fi epic The Hyperion Cantos. If he's going to talk about poetry, I'm going to want a sestina, and that can only lead to trouble.

I never used to consciously write with meter - you can blame that on my drama teacher Annie, and the exercises she set us during our Shakespeare unit. I found iambic pentameter addictive, and well-lending to the writing of much Angst. Then I abandoned it for a while - God knows English was no encouragement, and the only poetry I was really enjoying then was that of EE Cummings. I like the way his poems bounce, and I liked the way they made me think - not just of their contents, but their form.

This is in opposition to such modern day writers as Bill Manhire, whom I pick on specifically because I remember looking at his poetry and thinking, "Why the hell is that a new stanza?" It is that that gives me a distrust of 'free verse'. If a poem doesn't have rhythm, I'm not interested, and I could not find a rhythm in his poetry.

Perhaps this inhibits my freedom of expression? I don't think so. It is to find freedom in your restrictions that is the true art.

- I write exactly two pages every night; what else do you expect?

(to Exchange)