yep. we've all dealt with that bullshit, closed-minded buerocracy.

about the wearing away at stones (NOT smoothing over at all)

no, i expect i won't livelong enough to see the effects of that erosion. but am i going to stay at it? yes. because it' worth doind. or, undoing, in this case. ignore foulness, and it putrifies. i'd rather do what i can to wash it away, even if i know i can't be the total solution. "i have a dream"--he didn't see it either. but he sure as hell set the wheels in motion.

i'm going to assume you do things you think will help, not harm, right? well, that's what this is for me. i could give a fuck about the word nigger. but my friends--they're 'hurt' by the way it's used. so, pour, y2k, pour.

margaret--that was a joke. of course i see the humor of it. can you not see the sarcasm in my comments? come on, margaret!!! lighten up!! did you really think i was being serious when i stated that poemranker was, 'the most advanced forum for literary camaraderie in the civilized world?' --well, i see that you laughed, so maybe you did have some inkling that i was completely over the top, here.

laugh a little margaret!! it's a fun place! just don't take the assholes so seriously!

what i am telling you is what i have been told. white people aren't allowed to say nigger because they don't carry the stigma of it. in all fairness , i am not trying to be polite or pc, i'm respecting the unwritten rule as given to me by friends i have offended with my too-familiar speech.

apparently it can be a term of endearment, between people who feel they own the word, whether they want to or not. but i'm not in that club, so i don't have all-access passes for it.

my sister's a teacher--it's a hot issue. you can get suspended for saying it in her highschool, regardless of age or skin color. fuck, cunt, etc might not even get you detention, but nigger can get you expelled.

i think it's stupid to give a WORD so much power. but i'm not the one who leveraged it. i hope to take away it's import by letting it fade. 'mick' and 'wop' had that power not 100 years ago. it's faded now. nigger's been around longer, so it'll take longer to fade. so that's how i deal with it--it doesn't deserve to have power, so i'll take it away, one grain of sand at a time. i'm part of the water flowing over that big-ass rock.

rules are--unless you are one, you cant use it, bevause it's a flash point. so my dark-skinned allies would have me know.

lots and lots and lots of words used to say something that could be said directly--it's over-aggrandizing. it's bad form.

in term of poetry, concise is always good. (maybe lyrics are the exception). MAKE EVERY FUCKING WORD COUNT AND STOP BEING SO GODDAM LAZY.

end of rant.

but that ain't what it takes... to love me.

i'm not h8, but i have some references:

http://thewordshop.tripod.com/forms.html
this is the best one


http://library.thinkquest.org/3721/poems/forms/learn.html

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Poetry/Forms/Fixed_Verse_Forms/

http://www.ahapoetry.com/newform.htm

also, the Help page (link, upper left, every single page) can be most...help-full.

www.dictionary.com

you should just lick his balls and get it over with.

mrs.g!
come to poetry and beer with me next wednesday. it will mean flying to CT, but, what the hell, it will be worth it, right? hatter's hare and rusty, and maybe knickytoy are going too.

agreed. questions and poems make sad bedfellows.

very nicely pu.

but, theses lines--there is too much knowing:

"Face to face with stones who know you
by name when you don't know when that
single foreign particle will break your
femur, your lung. You know that you are"

stones--face--blank--stones can't know. it's not that they don't know--but even if they did know, could they pronounce it?