Punctuation, line breaks, enjambment, capitalisation

These devices are used to assist the reader in understanding the work and in particular, as a guidance when reading out aloud. Good for prose, bad for poetry.

To some extent, I leave it up to the reader to work out how best to read the work. Punctuation and other such devices just get in the way.

I find it quite refreshing to have someone else read one of my poems out aloud. They will always place a different interpretation on it and give it a different life. This is even the case with myself when I go back and reread something I wrote eons ago.

Add your own punctuation if you like if it would help with your reading.

Errors and other Imperfections.

Life is full of these. My poetry is no different. Every time I reread something, I find improvement that I could make. Are these really errors or just imperfections? Do they need to be fixed?

A resounding no. That is of course unless you want to do it. In fact, I would encourage you to do it. Take what I have done, fix it up a bit, improve it and call it your own version. Of course you should always give credit to the original poet, me!

One thing that you can do to help is to read it out aloud; to yourself or to others. Several times, not just once. If you find yourself stumbling or inserting a different word, fix it. Sometime, that different word is the one that was really meant to be.

Interpretation.

Read into my poetry whatever you like. I have never deliberately inserted layers of deeper meaning into my work. If it is there, it happened by accident. Perhaps my id guided my choice of expressions or something like that.

Also, your social circumstances, life experiences or brand of the English language will different from mine, at least I hope so. This gives you the freedom to think what you like.

This has always been a bone of contention with me. Reading a 100 year old poem and interpreting it as though it was written today. Seems like a high school challenge to me. Fail, fail, fail. Better to do a little research and come to terms with the  social values of the day, the use of language at the time and not forgetting the political and religious climate.