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JH: Poetry is a closer star! Brilliant! Sometimes pictures are part of my poems, as in G is for GRANDUNCLES (OF THE CATTLETRADE), where the pictures accompany their words.

In "Thus, We Speak of the Language of Hopeful No Return" the picture is an illustration, one that is no longer needed as I've decided to re-title the poem, probably "Lines, On A Plaster Mask Of A Drowned Girl". The new title clears up the ambiguity of the image, in addition to making the subject of the poem less fixed. The cast in my link is that of l'Inconnue de la Seine.
I had the idea of a title series, as opposed to a poem series, that would use the title "Thus, We Speak of the Language of ---- " for a variety of poems. The "Lines, On A Plaster Mask Of A Drowned Girl" poem was not an appropriate debut for this title series. I opposed a title series to a poem series, but are they severe opposites? GRANDUNCLES OF THE CATTLETRADE has, so far, an unchanging set of words in the title which lend to interpretation of the poem. Possibly too early to compare the two, as the "Thus, We Speak of the Language of ---- " series is unwritten, aside from the false start. What is a title to you? They have different functions - from a key, to a wish to title a poem something other than "Poem", "Sonnet", or "Song". Why do some poems get titles, and some don't? Does the poetic have anything to do with titles? Or is a title an act of interpretation? ---
but this is in the case of titles coming after poems. I don't know yet if "Thus, We Speak of the Language of ---- " is an instance of inventing a title before the poem, or if it is an instance of inventing a series. At this early stage, it's all words, sans categories.

AHB: I've always felt that orchestral music loses something in so often being identified merely by opus number. give me names for the work. titles start an imaginative flow, are one's first step into (or with) the poem. titles seem to anchor a poem. not so much that the poem is about what the title mightr indicate, but that the title assumes some boundaries. which, yes, is limiting, but then a poem wants to be abut something not everything. I shy from titles that might seem (too) interpretative, tho I guess by using them the author is saying go this way. starting with the title, which I do sometimes, seems directional. whatever one writes after the title bears this implied direction. I'm seeing your series as they appear on the Wryting list as they develope. that is, they weave together. in envisioning a book form, can you see twining them similarly? Robert Duncan opted for this, running several ongoing series thru his books as they chronologically appeared. this brings me to wonder how you look at the Wryting list and how it bears on your procedure. does the work that you post have to be fully finished, or some level of completion?