"Show, Don't Tell" -- dumb advice

[abu nuwas]

isn't this show and don't tell;


This morning, while waiting for shower water to heat and my
wash-and-wear shirt to drip dry?

i have to admit to often saying "show don't tell"
while some poetry is best done in a flat monotone of "i sad, she said" i much prefer something with graphics.
i really like abu's writes on this so instead of copying them, just consider them pasted.

sometimes a cigar is a lot more than just a cigar.

Billy -- Much flattered, but I have had further thoughts.

I think there are shades of description. The most telly one is where everything is abstract. Then there are examples like yours, which Plato would have understood well enough. We do not know what manner of morning it is. Is it hazy, wet, sunny, parching, fresh? Those appeal to our senses; so would colour-- blue, gold, red, grey? So with the shower water: the drops of water will not appear without colour, they will be lit by the lighting or light around, and the surround. What colour is the shirt. what does it feel like, long-sleeved or short?

Plato would have said that although there are all sorts of fashions and colours and sizes of shirts (or spoons, or mornings) they must have an essence which enables us to say ''That is a shirt (or spoon)'' And he thought this was more real than the flim-flam of our world. But writing using such abstractions is not very satisfying for the reader who would like to build up a mental picture.

Sometimes a good cigar is a smoke....