Just a quick note of acknowledgement, and note on disagreements:

Irbisgreif unwatched and blocked me, ostensibly on accout our conversation last week about the nature of poetry. (The one in which everyone, certainly including myself, was thoroughly civil-- exept in that sense where it's rude to have differing opinions).

I appreciate that admission on Irbisgreif's part that they couldn't defend the flimsy objections they made re: my definition of poetry.

Also, I'm disappointed Irbisgreif took it that personally, when there was obviously no need to. Not disappointed to be unwatched, mind you.

My hope for everybody as they grow up is that they can learn to distinguish between ideas (and even behaviors) on the one paw, and real persons on the other. I've resigned myself to repeating this endlessly, so here goes:

People matter-- they deserve compassion and fairness.

Ideas aren't people. If you take it personally when somebody says something like "free verse is a ridiculous waste of time, in addition to being oxymoronic" then you're just flat out making a mistake. Because: you are not free verse. (For another example, same goes with religion. If I say: "Christianity is an absurd collection of boring, and often particularly vicious, lies," and you think you're insulted, you're mistaken. Because: You aren't Chrstianity. Being insulted by my remark makes about as much sense as being insulted when it starts to rain on a day when you didn't want it to.)

I love forgiving people their mistakes, if they're willing to learn from them. Seeing somebody run from a stupid mistake like insisting "all langauges must have poetry" as though their whole self-worth depended on it, is sad.

Because Irbisgreif's worth a lot more than one nonsense opinion about poetry. I hope he/she figrues that out.