The end of a cigarette is my daughter

[EileenGreay]

thanks for the reply (i see what you mean about the tense), and for the explanation about the spaces. which leads me to another question. are they arbitrary or do you give thought as to where you use them.

I do indeed give thought as to where I use them, but the reason behind each use is often different, and I believe the effect to often be different (just as the effects of enjambment are incredibly varied). Just to give a few examples from this poem, I intended for the space between 'Which wash our feet' and 'like Christ with perfume' to suggest a distance - perhaps an implausibility - between tenor and vehicle. However, the spaces around 'which linger' enact a process of lingering as the blank space extends. Of course, what the reader receives from the spaces may be completely different to what I intend them to represent - and every reading or interpretation is as valid as mine.

I hope that goes somewhere towards explaining my use of space. Do let me know if you have any more queries - I understand that it's an aspect of writing which to some seems unnecessary, but I find it integral to my attempts to express myself.