He encountered the word “particular”
in its plural form twice within a
matter of minutes and both times

it was in reference to poetry… “seen
cleanly and with the concomitant
well-chosen particulars, is one

of the most powerful ways to do
this.” stated the poet, “this”
being poetry, and “…poets love

particulars…” stated the monk on
his way to a statement on contem-
plation. He contemplated that

for a while. He has always been
concerned about not seeing the
forest for the trees, not getting

the big picture, not taking it all
in and not getting stuck examining
the bark of a lone, big, old, oak

tree concluding that the forest is
made up solely of big, old oak trees
but then he thought about how import-

ant the trees are to seeing the
forest, (because, let’s face it,
without the trees there wouldn’t

be a forest in all of its wonder-
ful diversity through which to
wander.) perhaps just one tree at

a time and then cumulatively as
one steps back from particular
trees. Yes, those particulars

are very important, particulars
of the tree and particulars of
the poem, but there are many

types of trees in the forest,
and…there are many types of
poems in the poet’s bag of

poems each filled with all kinds
of particulars and maybe even a
few particular tricks…and treats.