The human genome is only about 2 to 3 percent different from chimpanzees. Imagine how minute the differences are between you and I, our parents, their parents, and on down through the aeons of human existence. The vast majority of human concerns are universal. We share the same needs, feelings, desires, sins, and joy. From culture to culture the ways we view these concerns and the ways we seek to fulfill them vary -- but the basic human condition is constant. Moreover it is beyond the capacity of common language. The poet transcribes the human condition for the next generation -- to put into language that which may not be put into language--this is the poet's job.

My Ten Commandments of Poetry

1)Thou shalt use intense imagery

2)Thou shalt paint a thousand pictures with the fewest words possible

3)Thine poem shalt be as a woman's skirt: short enough to be interesting but long enough to cover the subject (and the shorter the more interesting)

4)Thou shalt write in multiple layers

5)Thou shalt leave room for the reader

6)Thou shalt use language not found in daily discourse

7)Thou shalt invent words as required

8)Thou shalt write with beauty even when writing of an ugly subject

9)Thou shalt write of the human condition

10)Thou shalt evoke an emotional response in the reader

She feeds neon seasons

surf of roses

swelling into leaves

piled into sneering eons

of no end seen

summer shapes shifting in

tidal beaches' tender

the sense of eros

essenced in droning

waves of crisp tomorrow chill

red dress gleaming

reef adorned

adored

a door

the season of dreams

melting summer's last rites

past penchants

pining in

neon

falling

the fall wind

winding each glimmer

of yesterday sodden

with noon's sun

she falls to him

in the deafening fade

a blanket of eros

erasing

easing; ending fear

safe

soon

she is the door

the season

the seed

the oases freed

Of course anything I say is purely my opinion and technique. Whatever works for you and everyone else obviously works well.

I start out with my main theme -- in this piece: People come into our lives and go out of our lives like seasons. Then I examine the metaphor I've chosen--here -- seasons, and anthropomorphise it by calling the season fall she. It is a layering technique though because she represents also a literal she, and I metaphorize her by describing her as fall. But she also represents all she's. Next, I encrypt the layers by using words that are not obvious -- what makes free verse poetry-- to me-- and not prose -- is the use of uncommon language and the encryption of words... in this case Fall/She both become, the neon season. Neon is such a powerful word and automatically conveys -- brilliance, color, vibrant, flashing imagery, and excitment... but She/Fall also are represented by Door, and Oases.... the passage of one season to another, the Oases of the Summer.. the coolness and shade after a long period of dry and heat --that's how I multi-layer and how I free verse.

One other technique I use sometimes -- but not always is to anagram a phrase that captures the thought I want to express -- sometimes I'll use the phrase in the text -- sometimes not. In this case I didn't. After I anagram the phrase I'll pick and choose words and arrange them like magnetic poetry and leave myself the liberty of inserting any word I need as filler to complete an idea. The anagramatical effect results in wonderful alliteration and similar sounding, similar looking, words that don't necessarily, but could rhyme...