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Jim Friedman's avatar

There's no difference between the two, except that one comes first and the other second.

Even the punctuation is the same. Mmm..

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Ian Gouge's avatar

No difference in words or punctuation Jim, correct. But I would argue as you 'read' them in your head (or even aloud) you will do so subtly differently e.g. no pause at traditional poem line-endings; the temptation to read one as straight prose; slight variations in pace etc.

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zanna beswick's avatar

yes, I see. And I so agree about needing to be freed from first drafts. I'm often amazed by how much editing, how many drafts I do (enjoyably) and are necessary. In a poem every comma, word, line counts, as the form is such a crucible....

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zanna beswick's avatar

interesting subject - but I can't wee the difference between the two, Ian? And I enjoy Glyn Matthews' 'Smile for the Cameras'

Later - I mean 'see' - apologies!

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Ian Gouge's avatar

For me it's how you would read them in your head or say them out loud. Although marginal, I think the cadence and rhythm is different.

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Ama's avatar

What am I not seeing? They look identical.

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Ian Gouge's avatar

The words are identical, but the layout isn't. I think how we read words is partially driven by how they look. If you took a paragraph of prose and removed all punctuation (made it a kind of stream of consciousness) you'd read it differently even if the words were identical...

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Glyn Matthews's avatar

I always keep my eye open for found poetry. The joy is in recognising them. It's like finding a dropped pound coin in the street, but so much better sometimes. Here's one, absolutely word for word that I found a couple of weeks ago on a 'neighbourhood website'. I simply formatted it as a poem........

Smile for the Cameras

To all the rats

who come out at night,

especially the ones

who live in Stanley Street,

flashing their car lights,

drug dealing, smoking cannabis,

sniffing nitrous oxide,

throwing their takeaways,

gas canisters, rubbish everywhere,

music playing , off their heads,

behind the back of Warreners Walk ,

hiding so no one can see them,

ignorant disrespectful,

park outside your own houses,

you need to get job ,

obviously your wives don’t know,

keeping us awake all night,

you have been caught on camera,

and reported to the police.

Smile for the cameras.

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