when format is all we have

when format is all we have

 

 

scantily clad nouns

make for the barest reactions

when verbs are chasing after

 

and adjectives missed the bus

giving adverbs no work for the day

naked sentences wear grim expressions

 

and punctuation finds itself huddling 

on street corners, fingers wrapped around

prepositional bottles, swigging articles

to forget

 

why do titles matter in a world 

of abandoned theses

we could come up with a plan of development

to make things better.

 

but the essay will still not reach

the required wordage,

and those nouns will still shiver

even when the hottest conclusions

 

are reached.

 

 

erin-cilberto

9/27/18

Reviews

[angel]

Sometimes my titles don't give any clues, but not often. They are usually descriptive.
You make me sorrow for my punctuation, Jacob, poor commas, periods, and dashes. My creative writing teacher in college, however, told me I was in love; with 'the good old semicolon.
Nice job.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for sharing, angel...appreciate your words,
j.

[Chris Shaw]

Titles are important in my opinion. They are a guide to the meaning of the writing. So even if the text is flawed, there is a lighthouse there to help. That's where your lines took me Jacob.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your words, Chris.
j.

[h d e rushin]

so true dear brother. Poetry, since it so increasingly open ended, can no more teach us how to write than it can teach us how to live our lives. titles only summon you to the writers experience in time....that's why Plath chose her titles as a constant look away at her own intentions. (that is her later poems when life was starting to unravel.) You're sensational as always....dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and yet, her latter work was her best...she even thought she was writing her best stuff at the end...so much more we could have had from her...thank you for your kind review, dana.
j.