[New-Poetry] Excellence in Poetry

[Bob Grumman]

Here's my Check-List again, slightly revised:

A Poem Is Excellent Regardless of How Long Halfwits Have Praised or 
Dismissed It If It:

(1) provides a passage into something importantly true or centrally 
beautiful, if not both:

(2) is clear, but not easily clear, nor ever finally fully clear:

(3) has a Unifying Principal, or some meaning or image or the like which 
pulls its elements reasonably close together; 

(4) contains few or no superfluous words or other matter;

(5) boasts some constituent of substance that few or no other poems have 
such as
uncommon diction, grammar, expressive modality (e.g., mathematics, 
visual art), and imagery;

(6) avoids excessive use of dead language, imagery, sentiment, ideation, 
technique and  form.


--Bob G.