I like it. I'm just still working out how to make it poetry.

Oh. I don't know what to tell you, then.

Is the pulmonary system a cycle? Is a circuit? If he said 'circuit' instead, would it work better?

Nobody's pointing out the real problems with this poem, so here goes: 1) it uses 'it's' for 'its'; 2) it's about suicide.

Discuss.

I was on vacation with a weeklong bender.

"Kinda cute in a sordid way" is kinda cute in a sordid way. But I bet if I met you in a bar, I'd stand a pretty good chance. Not that I want to, I'm just speaking hypothetically.

PS-Saw a great poem about girlbees yesterday. Can't get it online, though. More to follow.

Beta is a name. The name of a good friend of mine from Mexico days, actually. I'd like to say I meant something by it, but the truth is at the time I just couldn't think of any Spanish girls' names not overused in poetry.

In my defense, I did mean something by "agitator", "wringer", "mangle" and "banner". That's got to be worth something, considering.

Of course it's poetry. Consider the evidence:

1) The lines are much shorter than the space available. Sometimes, they're not even the same length. There are paragraph-breaks inserted at odd places.

2) "No" and "though" rhyme. "Agitator" and "Tlatelolco" almost do.

3) It's posted on a poetry website, with "Free Verse" written at the top.

4) People who come to poetry websites to read and vote on poetry are voting on it.

Of course it should be 'infinite', only. I was thinking that even Dovina would balk at someone interpreting her poems as "the horrific squelchings of a thoroughly misguided", making the number of possible correct interpretations infinity-minus-one. I see now how wrong I was.

This is my favorite comment on poemranker lately.

Well, I have to repeat: I'm in a stable, mindbogglingly pleasurable relationship and have been for years, while you, judging from your poems and comments, are not. I don't mean any offense; consider it in the line of advice.

Christ, I'm glad that's resolved.

Is the following true?

1) -=Dark_Angel=-,P.I. believes there are a finite number of correct interpretations for a poem, i.e., the interpreter has gotten at an idea or meaning the author deliberately included. He probably thinks this because he's British.

2) Dovina believes there are a nearly infinite number of correct interpretations for a poem, as the author can have unwittingly (and/or through a practiced use of ambiguity) included a bunch of ideas which he or she wasn't aware of while writing. She probably thinks that because she lives in California.

Not that any of this matters anyway, but it seems the conversation's stuck in that bog for at least one of you.

"caulking" and "caulked" are correct spellings, dummy.

Not very well. Sorry again.

Um, if I expressed my relationship in a noncerebral fashion, it would probably come out something like JUASDJnASJAWEUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmm.

Forgive me for showing our readers a little more consideration.

Besides, the cerebral stuff makes the noncerebral stuff possible. Bet after godknowshowmany relationships you still didn't know that.

I think it's a simply wonderful word. Really.