Bad Habits?

My name is Daniel E. Blackston, and I have the following  bad poetic habits:

1) I use words nobody understands. (Rhetoric)
2) My poems are too dense. (Accessibility)
3) I sometimes lose track of my theme. (Obscurity)
4) My closing lines could really be better. (Finishing)

Don't get me wrong, it was hard to say those things publicly.  And hard to say them even to myself. But this is the reality I face as a working poet and some version of it is your reality, too.

If you think you don't have weaknesses, you're mistaken. There are no perfect poets. Some are very close, sure. But no-one gets it right all the time. Poets tend to carry their mistakes along with them and are reluctant to change. Look at Dickinson's galloping meter, Crane's obscurity, Plath's melodrama, Eliot's banality, or Poe's sing-song rhythms and rhyme. Sometimes the mistakes work for you, and that's probably why we cling to them, but -- for the most part -- our bad habits restrict our growth. 

At the very least, our bad habits  show us where we can immediately try to improve.

​For me it's: have a point, say it clearly, and finish strong.

How about you? Can you name your bad habits?

Tally
Poems Written: 306
Submissions: 51
Rejections:  20 (13 tiered)  
Acceptances: 0
Poem written today: "Tall Flowers"   

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