got it

Too many poets write beyond the point where the reader in her/his mind says ‘I got it’. However clever or compelling the premise, the theme, the notion, the conceit, etc., don’t write beyond the ‘I got it’.

radiant theme

Even when not explicitly stated, the theme radiates from the poem.

theme and form

I always have two things in my head—I always have a theme and the form. The form looks for the theme, the theme looks for the form, and when they come together you’re able to write.

—W.H. Auden, “Obiter Dicta,” W.H. Auden: The Life of a Poet (Michael O’Mara Books Ltd, 1995) by Charles Osborne

not again

Except in a poem’s refrain, poets should fear repeating themselves.

discursively grounded

Digressions that however far-reaching never lose touch of the stem theme.

stream of story and theme

The same stories and themes follow us because we as a society are constantly breaking camp and moving on.

bigger than that

A theme that couldn’t be reduced to a single word or a short phrase.

thrown together text

A long poem without a discernible organizing principle, without narrative or without a recurring theme, and comprised of discrete and easily separable sections that could be reordered without diminishment to the whole, is not a long poem.

magnetized fragments

Like iron filings the fragments aligned toward the magnetic pole of the theme.

voice carries

Voice, as an attribute, cannot be achieved by writing one or two poems. Voice pervades the body of work. Voice is style laced with recurring content and theme.