<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- AUTOCENTO OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE --> <!-- vim: fdm=indent --> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="generator" content="pandoc"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes"> <meta name="author" content="Case Duckworth"> <title>On formal poetry | Autocento of the breakfast table</title> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="img/favico.png" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/common.css"> <script src="./js/lozenge.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script src="./js/hylo.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/verse.css"> <script src="./js/verse.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./css/elegies.css"> <script src="./js/elegies.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <!--[if lt IE 9]> <script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"> </script> <![endif]--> <!-- <script src="js/external.js"> </script> --> </head> <body> <article id="container"> <header> <!-- title --> <h1 class="title">On formal poetry</h1> <div class="header-extra"> </div> </header> <section class="content verse"><p>I think that I could write formal poems<br />exclusively, or at least inclusive<br />with all the other stuff I write<br />I guess. Of course, I’ve already written<br />a few, this one included, though “formal”<br />is maybe a stretch. Is blank verse a form?<br />What is form anyway? I picture old<br />women counting <a href="roughgloves.html">stitches on their knitting</a>,<br />keeping iambs next to iambs in lines<br />as straight and sure as arrows. But my sock<br />is lumpy, poorly made: it’s beginning<br />to unravel. Stresses don’t line up. Syl-<br />lables forced to fit like <a href="ronaldmcdonald.html">McNugget</a> molds.<br />That cliché on the arrow? I’m aware.<br />My prepositions too—God, where’s it stop?<br />The answer: never. I will never stop<br />writing poems, or hating what I write.</p></section> </article> <nav> <a class="prevlink" href="feedingtheraven.html" title="Previous article in Elegies for alternate selves"> Feeding the raven </a> <a href="#" id="lozenge" title="Random page"> ◊ </a> <a class="nextlink" href="i-am.html" title="Next article in Elegies for alternate selves"> I am </a> </nav> </body> </html>