Cliches versus Idioms

[Exit]

Caesar probably said "kai su, teknon" [και συ τεκνον]... just saying.

anyway, with regard to cliche, one surely wants to avoid them, unless that's part of it, part of the thing, part of the style, the conscious choice. Idioms are slightly different, as they are often regional or date specific. "Et tu, Brute!" is a cliche in literary circles. But if your eastern European cleaner said it to you... it's contextual. I say, write what you want. Cliche, boring, derivative. It doesn't matter. No one aims for originality anymore, so why bother. As long as you have a thousand little thumbs-up, you're golden.

I think "conscious choice" is the key, at least for me. And the same goes for many other poetic devices. When the poet is properly aware of context, has a specific intent and owns it, he can get away with much more than a novice churning them out willy nilly.

I entirely agree. The problem is, that "conscious choice" depends on at least two things. 1) that you have made it clear in the poem that it was a conscious choice—which can often defeat the purpose of doing it. Or 2) You're (insert any well-established writer here).