giving things a bit more pique

During my last revision frenzy, some of my revisions encompassed nothing more than retitling a piece.

Usually, I'm pretty good at picking out apropros or odd/intriguing titles. However, some of my poems continue to labor under such bland names as "Adversity", "Definition", and "Solace".

One of these pieces, "Consolation of a Daughter", recently became "Instant Karma". Not a great improvement in terms of turning into something other than an abstract noun, but it's at least a bit zippier.

My best retitling went into rendering "Observation" (which was a perfectly appropriate name) into "Jellied Cake". Isn't that much more, well, appetizing?

I write tomato, you sing ketchup.

Bob Dylan does not deserve this snobbery and pedantry: Academics need to stop pretending that pop lyrics have no literary worth, writes Michael Horovitz (seen in choriamb)

The article is well-written. However, there is something to the "snobbery" that many poets have towards pop lyrics. A lot of pop lyrics barely utilize the amount of craft that academic poetry does. I'm a fan of slant rhyme, for example, but even I couldn't get away with some of the rhymes that songs do unless I were writing a song. Popular lyrics have a lot more leeway because they are melded with the accompaniment (especially if the melody comes before the words do); also, much doggerel can be catapulted into cultural dominance due to the notation that buoys it. A good musical progression can lead listeners to forgive mediocre lyrics.