Basil Bunting: “I Suggest”:
I Suggest:
1. Compose aloud: poetry is a sound.
2. Vary rhythm enough to stir the emotion you want but not so as to lose impetus
3. Use spoken words and syntax
4. Fear adjectives; they bleed nouns. Hate the passive.
5. Jettison ornament gaily, but keep shape.
— Put your poem away till you forget it.
6. Cut out every word you dare.
7. Do it again a week later, and again.
— Never explain — your reader is as smart as you.
