Ed and Ed

[trinary]

E.A Poe to e e cummings
Said "Ed, your verses bore me.
Their structure's awkward, addlepated.
What's this mess I see before me?
'They sowed their isn't' isn't pleasant,
Have you no solid education?
Even though I've no degree
And never finished at U.V.
At least I know my punctuation."

e e cummings thusly countered
"don't fault the verse solely for me
its style without is not its, Ed,
which on this both we agree
yours besides in which one finds
grammared sentences intactly
colon, comma, quote, instead
a source of true ennui." he said,
So Poe replied, "Exactly!"

E.A. sought to take his point home
Fearing he was losing ground.
"Here's another thing," he stated
"On which I shall now propound:
Your writing smacks of shallow wisdom,
A lack of depth which I must scorn.
And frankly, Ed, you're out of touch.
...But I suppose I ask too much
From a man yet to be born."

e e cummings hesiated
Calmly, before he replied.
Choosing carefully his words
And which ones he would leave aside
It is the way of all great poets,
To think long 'ere a word is said:
"structure, message, motive, plot.
Indeed, dear Ed, you ask a lot
For a person who is dead."