Re: FLUXLIST: mesostic/acrostic/exhaustic etc. - is there a mesoway?

[Rod Stasick]

On 2006 May 22, at 10:47 AM, Allan Revich wrote: Thanks Rod for such a thoughtful answer.   I confess to remaining unconvinced that only Cage's mesostic forms can rightfully be called "mesostic", but I am certainly much better informed than I was a week ago!   It is interesting to contemplate how the term will be used some decades from now. I suppose though, that as interesting as that idea may be to you or me, most of the world's English speakers will never even think about it. I hope at least that John Cage himself will be recognized for his genius and influence by then. Probably most of the world's English (or otherwise) speakers will never think about it because, like many creative endeavors, it's not seen as being a "practical" matter. There's usually no "reason" to have capitalized letters down the middle of anything and so it will probably stay in the realm of the creative artist for quite some time.  As for Cage: I think it's not really a matter of ownership,  but more a recognition of a new form that anyone can use. When it was desired to separate the hokku from renga because it was thought that it could exist on it's own, then it was separated, BUT it underwent a name change in order to keep it distinct and was then called "haiku." In the same way that haiku is 5-7-5 and few people question it's form by saying that there must be another way of writing haiku, then I think it's safe to accept that the Cage/Brown creation/naming of the mesostic can be readily accepted in this form. Rod