What Determines The Choice? Poem by Denis Martindale

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WHAT DETERMINES THE CHOICE OF WORDS?

What determines the choices made
For words or rhymes in verse,
The process so each gets displayed,
When inspiration stirs,
Such that one word seems better used
Than that word used before,
Such that the first word gets refused
As something to ignore?

What determines the better choice,
The first draft to dismiss,
Such that the poet then employs
Far greater thoughts than this,
Beyond the vision that began,
Momentum to increase,
Until there proved a change of plan,
More wisdom to release?

All I can state, from years and years,
Is that a poet's blessed,
Each time he casts off all his fears,
In his quest for the best.
And if that means more editing,
An hour more, or two,
He should find something more fitting,
That helps himself and you.

God, let that be his highest aim,
The purpose of his prose,
And not the wealth and not the fame,
As many would suppose.


Denis Martindale. July 2021.