With 300 poems now put in the virtual books, please excuse a quick aside to answer some reader questions for, and comments about, this newsletter.
You really put the "ish" in "Daily(ish)" sometimes. I am aware. I've been doing my best not to give in to the black dog. It's literally an existential struggle and sometimes that takes priority over---well---everything.
What's wrong with the formatting of this poem?
You didn't write me back! I don't respond nearly as often as I should, but I do read, and take to heart, every comment! I'd especially like to recognize Mssr. B and Reader S. for so many thoughts and insights into poems.
Why didn't you share the poem I sent? I read every poem sent to me, but not all of them resonate with me the same way they do with you and, even if they do, I might not share them right away. One of my personal rules when I started this list was that I wouldn't send poems I felt I should, only those that I found my way into and that "worked" for me at the time of reading.
Speaking of rules: I may be relaxing my internal rule about sharing only complete poems. I have some excerpts from long poems that work well on their own. If I choose to share them, I think it makes sense to share them here instead of the Commonplace Communiqué. We'll see.
The lengths I'll go to... In other words, I may also be sharing some longer poems in their entirety. What can I say? Rules are just constructs.
For your troubles, a very short poem by a master of the form:
I found a
weed
that had a
mirror in it
and that
mirror
looked in at
a mirror
in
me that
had a
weed in it
---A. R. Ammons
Thanks for reading; I'm grateful for the privilege of sharing your time.