two halves

Half of the published poems are a half too long.

crosscut saw

The right margin is a serrated edge, and this poem is going saw you in half.

poet output

The two-volume too much Ammons by half.

two halves

“You’re published now,” I told her, “in your eyes, your whole air,
so your poem is half of the truth, and the other half is the reader.”

—Mona Van Duyn, “An Essay on Criticism,” Merciful Disguises: Published and Unpublished Poems (Atheneum, 1973)