writing poetry

[rayheinrich]

Treat poetry like you would cooking. If you add too many ingredients it comes off confusing and overdone. Trust your imagery keep the flourishes to just what is needed.

This insight deserves resurrection.

    The metaphor only works for inexperienced cooks. Good cooks can use vast
numbers of ingredients and produce the sublime.  I have a Cook's Illustrated Magazine
(the scientific method is strong in this one, Supreme Commander Vader) that has a recipe
for fish stew that uses twenty-three. Good cooks can use just one as well: peaches.  
Of course, the 'too many' invalidates this remark as two would be too many for peaches,
and twenty-four would be too many for the fish stew. The best number of flourishes is
probably zero and imagery should never be trusted, you gotta keep an eye on that fucker
the whole distance. Uh, but yes, resurrection is appropriate (metaphorically speaking).



    "Write poetry like you make alphabet soup: You start with random letters,
    you stir them up, and you serve them (all the while trying not to burn your fingers)".
- Kooc Doog