“Arthur Ransome has said that Poe possessed more of a manner than a style in a strict sense. In his best poems Steve Eng posesses both, and that has endowed him with a very special kind of individuality” --Frank Belknap Long
“One of the best songwriters I’ve heard in years.” --Bobby Braddock, Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame
“Steve Eng’s middle name could well be “Versatile”…his hundreds of poems have been widely published. --S. F. Willens, Fantasy
Commentator
“…Eng gives us a direct, eyeball-to-eyeball look at what some call ‘realism’ within his poems.--Mary Elizabeth Counselman poet
Steve lives with his wife, Anne, in Portland, OR. A condition called Primary Progressive Aphasia has caused dementia “…and severed all the links of language with the past,” making his poetry speak all the more for him. Contact can be made via redbudthree@yahoo.com.
I write rhymed-and-metered verse, the oldest form (because easiest to memorize and most musical), and I avoid false rhymes, archaisms, and inversions. I think readers like verse to be clear and easy to read…I aim to be brief, and hopefully, dramatic.
I rewrite, re-work material all the time. This is craftsmanship, hopefully even art. Since I work in fixed forms, with rhyme and meter, this is especially necessary. Fixed forms with rhyme and meter, are easier than free verse, by the way. You have boundaries to keep you on the track. Yet beginners almost always prefer “free” verse with no rules and no form—and usually no value. This may be why free verse is so little read by the world at large. Only the surest hand, the largest talent, can write lasting poetry as free verse.
Definition
Love: the warmest weave of flesh and friendship,
Trust, till-the-endship,
Bittersweet, romantic blendship.
The Modern Version
The subtlest sort of vampiry
Will leave you with blood-full veins,
But drain you of identity
Till nothing of “You” remains.
Post-operative Report
Can you scalpel the soul with the knives of your science,
Separate sin with your blade—
And dissect human psyches with all your reliance
Placed in experiments made?
Empirical evidence augurs for “yes”—
Instinct suggests “maybe not”—
And there’s gore on the table. The wound is a mess.
Wisdomless knowledge you’ve got.
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