Manifesto Part Two

2. Avoid preciousness at all costs. There is a strain of contemporary poetry that depends on preciousness. By preciousness, I mean taking itself very seriously, using heightened language where plain language will do, compressed syntax, both typographic arrangement on the page and grammatical arrangement, and a didactic abstraction in place of narrative or imagery to explain/tell the reader what the poem is about. This is not for me. If you are trying to sound important or deep, you are most likely trivial and shallow. The experiment of paraphrasing the content expressed by poetry of this type is an instructive exercise, one which reveals the truth of this general rule. I never worry about the meaning of a poem while I am writing it. Or not much. I worry about sound, form, diction, imagery, reversal, and narrative. I aim for simple. For pleasures of ear and mind's eye. By doing this, in as unpretentious a manner as possible, I find there are often startling, mysterious, paradoxical depths to my work.