tenselessness

so i've finally caved to the idea of studying poetry from the old school mindset (the rules), to articulate what i'm trying to do at this moment. i must make my case plain and clear, even if it is not heard by many. i must make my case so i can make my case.

this is good though, this underlying question. this stone in my poetic shoe. i will have a semester to work it out.

not that i feel compelled to explain what i'm doing or why, but one must know the rules to break them, so they say.

i can't just wring my hands at being misunderstood. i have to come down and take off my shoes and walk around in the dust a bit, explain what i'm doing, and why. personally, i'd rather just do what i do.

but the ability to articulate why you do what you do is important. i've learned that here. if nothing else. to be able to account for the subtleties of mind and heart, to craft a dialogue of established accepted practices in order to reveal why i refuse to adhere to said practices, that is key.

i found, last semester, much of what i do, i do by virtue of who i am. i'm not the first to do it. no great surprise there. some of it comes from the storyteller tradition, some of it from experiences of late. all converging on the page and resulting in my peculiar use of the language.

i could be clearer. i could use grammatically correct sentence structure. i'm sure many would appreciate it, but the many have never, ever been my audience. i'm reaching for the few. which is counterintuitive. but hey, whatever.

such flippancy, such willingness to leave my point unsaid, undebated, uncontested even when it is misunderstood is something i will struggle with this semester. i need to make my case clear.

and so i will.