It is not essential to have exactly 10 or fourteen syllables per line, nor is it essential to make each line of verse scan with scientific precision, unless these are tricks you are trying. IV Avoid self-absorption . And were I a barber, everyone would need a haircut. Poets may write poetry about topics of current social and political relevance, about issues. Above all, poets should seek to explore matters other than the infinite nuances of the poet's own remarkable and unique personality and its bitter resentment at the implacable facts of mortality.
Personality is the last refuge of the ego.
V Poets may, without penalty of scorn and depreciation, refrain from cultivating their sensibilities via thorough and systematic derangement of the sensorium by means of gargantuan and compulsive indulgence in alcohol and other drugs. Brain damage has little to recommend it as an adjunct to art. Cirrhotic livers have been known to descend per anum before they inspire a line of verse. The muse does not shine only on the bacchanalian ear . VI One may show, without embarrassment, one's moral commitment in strong lucid verse, and not coyly posture variations on dada or art pour art in surreal dreamsongs.