The 10 Commandments
(with special emphasis on the 11th)
of
How To Write a Modern

Twenty-first Century Poem

1. Do not uplift

2. Be of mean cheer

3. No sentiment. (That's dreck, m'dear!)

4. Slip Iceberg Intellect in, show
Hints of Unfathomed Depths ... below,
Leave lots of thoughts to be divined
Within the windmills of my mind.

5. Cite obscure runics, ancient Cretes

6. Lace well with Latin, and for Pete's

7. sake do not end a single line cohesively

8. and do NOT rhyme!

9. Belay Millay, pooh pooh poor Poe,
(they more than rhymed, they scanned you know),
Replace Keats, Yeats, Blake and Rosetti
With Ginsberg, Bly and Ferlinghetti!

10.Cry life's a bore! Your life's a curse!
(But make me feel mine's even worse!)

11.This above all: to be real good,
make sure you're never understood.