a lot of nouns
syntactic complexity or strangeness
a combination of the borrowed and the personal
some sense that I am getting to know the poet through the poem, even as persona, or through even the coldest strategies (also a “personal” statement)
signs of struggle
simultaneously reaching historically backward and inventively forward
humor that isn’t merely smartass
mystery or puzzlement that isn’t just precious “vagueness”
a combination of innocence (the writer not knowing something) and experience (the writer knowing something
I have no problem with strategies and procedures but I want the poems to overcome those strategies and procedures rather than existing for the sake of them
no dogma. fuck dogma
rhythmic, syntactical, lexical attention to forward motion, speed, slowness, stillness, loops, and backtracking
who am I to say what is gratuitous and what is not? but I don’t like it when I have a feeling that something is gratuitous: a political sentiment, say, or a pop culture reference, or a kind of empty “poetic” floatiness
a poem like a suckling duckling.
a cat suckling a duckling.
Otohime 