Idea Or Sound?

[NobodyNothing]

We can't give you an idea. We can help you with sound. So I'd go with idea every time, as long as you understand (as you apparently do) that there's still more work to be done to bring it out perfectly.

Because I firmly believe that poems should be experienced aloud as well as on the page -- and neither position is more important than the other -- it is vital that a poem sounds the way you want it to. But like I said, that can happen in the workshop, not in your head. The more you workshop, the more you'll be able to do on your own.

Point taken.

I'm such a lone bird that I've been tending to watch other poems being critiqued (packing those into my mind), then returning to my own and seeing if I can apply what I saw/heard to my own.

But there are definitely times where I want to throw a particular line/stanza out there and ask..."can anybody tweak this in such a way that it comes out better; I've exhausted everything I can think of".

When I first started playing with poetry (before I stopped for a stretch of years) I briefly got into the performance poetry scene in Seattle (the Seattle Slam). I could always get around the sound texture problem because I was able to twist/bend/schmooze the sound texture live in such a way that it came out right, ways in which you might not read it on the silent page.

Anyway...