21 November 2008

Caught In Fewer Words (rev)

Caught in fewer words

Have you ever noticed that shorter poems
get to bat on many more occasions than
their over-lengthy brethren?
Is that a fact in part explaining Laws of
Conservation claiming spent creative
energy cannot be reclaimed for free?
Or is it just a fallacy, an urban myth to
keep them short, that brevity enhances
wit and lengthy poems are full of shit.
Where writers let a poem grow as poems
breathe, a poet knows the life they weave
demands you leave them unconstrained.
Love of words and slave to sounds and
rhythms that abound in treasured, tangled
lines will not abbreviate in smaller kind.
Those who dwell in fewer words and taut
expressions must rebel; curse you, tell the truth
you swine, the shorter verse must be declined!
The truth is not a mystery – nor governed by
a magic wand or intellect or lack of time,
but just extent of attention span.
© 2006, I.D. Carswell

2 comments:

  1. Ivan, You've done it again. This is a favorite to me! Best poem yet! I loved it. Sometimes fewer words speak an abundance!
    Keeps them coming back for more. Of course it depends on "how" it is said, and to "whom" is listening...I'm listening Ivan. Very well done!

    Bessye (Visions)

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  2. Ivan, I forgot to mention that the painting is a dream. I have always wanted to paint a picture of this nature. Now I know how beautiful it can be. Very beautiful painting.

    Bessye (Visions)

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