The Original Narcissist

[Lizzie]

 i just think you are not trusting yourself or your reader to put it together. and this is, i think, the mistake of some early into writing poetry. this whole business of making everything as clear as can be, it's like saying 'oh god! what if someone doesn't quite get precisely what i meant?' one has to live with the notion that you're probably not going to do that [unless you are writing a text book], and trust that you've done enough.

Yeah, I do have a tendency to want to explain things to death, that is a theme with me. Kind of wanting to control how the poem is received. It's a sickness.

Here's the deal (I mean this in all honesty, but I don't think it will come as much of a shock): not everyone is as smart as you. So, no, I don't trust that John Q. Public is going to understand what I'm saying, and I don't want to limit my readership to just the gifted and intellectual.

Besides, I thought that the newbies have a tendency to under-explain thinking that everyone can read their thoughts?

I'm gratified that you liked the last line though, because the friends that I tested it out on didn't get that one at all. But, then......yeah.

But, yes, I do like your solution and I'll implement it as soon as I'm done giving the kids a bath.