This collection of thirty-six formal poems stems from reading Dorothy Parker's Enough Rope. Parker's poems are marked by their discipline, concision, and wit. Zedolik endeavored to follow her tone and some of her metrical leads, as the poems in his collection are epigrammatical observations concerning everyday life.
The paradox of formal poetry is that, although the poet must adhere to strict meter and rhyme, an infinite number of syntactical and lexical paths exist to do this. So, freedom and constraint coexist simultaneously, and the poet must negotiate within this spectrum to achieve a quality poem.
Moreover, the freedom and constraint appeared to Zedolik as a perfect vehicle for communicating observations, thoughts, and feelings regarding the quotidian. Lines of six or even eight syllables, in English poetry, yield a lighter tone than might be found in a poem consisting of ten or more syllables, pentameter or hexameter, for example. This relative lightness is part of the point of these poems-to make a pithy observation, express a feeling, or articulate a thought that one must communicate concisely and then move on with his/her busy day.
