"Poetry Is Not A Project"

There is a self that is shown with the placement
of every word in a line.
Some placements are better than others.
Some placements are elegant
and allow the words to become a river
as they flow off the tongue or
the inner voice of the mind.
Other placements are clumsy
and done with little consideration
as they are rushed out to meet
some half-conceived expectation
of production.
There is an internal logic
that is negotiated
every time
a word is selected
and put forth. To give form
or not? To follow tradition and
meter or find a way to make
the words mirror the way I would
tell you these thoughts if we
were speaking to each other
across a table in a bar.
There is no scientific method
for this. There are suggestions
and some of them are quite helpful.
What are you looking to say?
How do you want to say it?
Do you know what I'm saying?