7/31/07

Allen Tate, a venerable poet of the 20th century, gave several lectures at UNC-Greensboro in the early 1970’s, when I attended there. He asked an assembly of about 500 awe-struck students how many of them wrote “free verse” poetry. Almost all the crowed proudly raised their hands. He set them up.

The old author then proceeded to angrily reprimand them pointing out that most “free verse” poetry is actually lazy prose (called prosety), and not very skillful. Good poetry is really hard work. He lectured for an hour on the virtues of novices using rhyme, meter, and other poetic techniques.

His basic point was that the struggle to produce good poetry while adhering to strict rules forces poets to consider ideas and modes of expression they would never have otherwise explored. Set your standards high and then live up to them.

When something isn’t working, try something else. Never throw a poem away. Instead put it away, until you are a better poet. Sooner or later, you may be good enough to write that poem. Years are not too long to work on a masterpiece. Corny but true.

Many of you are professionals, but I only play with Poser when there is time. I have only “finished” one render and it was trite (stock theme, figures, props, pose, lighting, environment, effects, and background).

I have never deleted any scene that have I started, because I learn things here all the time that help me advance one or another of them. A recent thread about lighting turned on a light for me, and helped me work on one project that just was not cooperating. Someday, I will be a good enough graphics artist to complete a project and share it.

LMK

Probably edited for spelling, grammer, punctuation, or typos.