A technical writing instructor often said to our class, "It's not enough to write so that you can be understood. You must write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood."
When writing or editing medical, technical, industrial, or related material, I make that kind of clarity my goal. I imagine how someone who is new to this material will perceive it. If the content can be misread or misinterpreted, I revise it to make sure that it can't possibly be misunderstood.
When writing or editing poems, short stories, or other creative pieces, that goal is not as important. For example, a poem may seek to create a sense of awe or mystery or may have more than one meaning, which enforced clarity would negate. Or a short story may contain a secret that should not be revealed until the end. (Like in a murder mystery, you wouldn't want to know "who done it" on page one.) Nevertheless, creative writing requires clarity in word choice, quotation attribution, and other areas.
So here's the key point: Technical writing can never have too much clarity. Creative writing can.
 

The theme of this year's Grammy Awards (Sunday at 8 PM Eastern on CBS) is "Music Unleashes Us." To illustrate its theme, the campaign uses four short videos. In one, New Yorkers on a bus gaze silently out the windows, looking bored. When Macklemore and Ryan Lewis step on board and start rapping, their music transforms an ordinary, everyday bus trip into a wild ride!
I don't know how or why, but music unleashes me. How about you?

Referential Magazine, which recently published several of my poems, was featured in the article, "Eight Innovative Online Magazines," by the short story expert at About.com. Congratulations to the editors of Referential Magazine!

Apple's new iPad Air commercial features arresting images, intense narration (a la William Burroughs), and part of an amazing Walt Whitman poem. Aside from making me itch for a new iPad, the commercial reminded me of that finger-in-the-socket feeling of reading Whitman's poetry. Nobody has ever been more alive than Walt Whitman!
But the ad only uses the first and last few lines of his ecstatic poem. To read the whole thing, check out O Me! O Life!
Then if someone asks "What's the point of living?" you can quote Walt Whitman: "That you are here--that life exists and identity / That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

The amazing editors of Referential Magazine not only published my poem "Sudden Storm," but also nominated it for a Pushcart Prize. What an honor! 
Check out the winter issue of Referential Magazine and its great stories, essays, and poems.