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May 30: Sorry, but although I avoid as much as possible listening to or reading about what the imbeciles running for U.S. president say, I can't help being exposed to some of it. Hence, the following epigram:
One of humankind's slyest inventions was government: a device for robbing the productive and avoiding war when dividing the spoils.
I don't know how good an epigram this is. I often wonder about the value of an epigram versus the value of a poem of approximately equal length. When I was a teen-ager, I much preferred epigrams. I'm still fond of them. But brief poems seem far richer to me. When my brain is working better, maybe I'll take a whack at saying why.
One additional thought: a large percentage of inferior readers of poetry (and they only read poems) value poems principally for their epigrammatical value. Pope would be their hero in poetry. I consider him almost not a poet.
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