Regional words/ phrases will always have a place in authentic writing, even if at first they seem ‘exotic’ . Here’s one containing an ‘exotic’ regional word that puzzled me until I researched it and made myself somewhat familiar with it. I was then was able to come to an appreciation of the haiku and realise that this word and no other was the best for the purpose:

unemployed
the uneven edge
of a quahog shell

paul m.

An example is a poem I am working on now. As it sits in my notebook, it ends with the word “upstairs” which pleases me because it has a strong sound-correspondence with a word which comes earlier. I have trained myself, but not too Pavlovially I hope, to believe that body (sound and rhythm) trumps everything, that things like meaning, nuance, undercurrent etc. can take care of themselves. (Many a marriage has foundered on this belief).
And I still believe that there is a way of working with poetry which requires such faith, and can benefit from it, but a certain wisdom, and intelligence and (I don’t know the word right now) is also needed sometimes. So in my example, I need ultimately to de-trance myself from the delights of the body and consider whether another word ( not “upstairs”) is what is really needed.

I am not going to provide the entire poem here, so this is not about getting advice, at least not right now, but I want to keep this Sailing open a bit. The blog, frankly, and from my strictly personal perspective, is getting to be a bit of a closed circuit, with little jolts of electricity coming in from here and there prompting a shout or two that quickly fades.

Maybe it’s enough.