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. It is axiomatic that poets and barbers and ranchers and shoe clerks are sensitive people.
Poetic sensitivity resembles nothing so much as a kind of garrulous petulance, a mannerism.
One should be responsible for what one writes, and not pretend the poet simply presides at the birth of the poem, leaving the waif deumbilicized and orphaned, subject only to the care and interpretation of others. VII Write nonconfessional poetry. Poets should feel under no compulsion to parade countless seductions, repetitious befuddled drunken binges and hilarious intoxications, humungous hangovers, fashionable fellatings, anomier-than thou guilts and other exquisite turpitudes. On the other hand, a poet may be openly heterosexual and not write about it. This should not be taken as a dogmatic endorsement of the missionary position.