half a whisper

i spent last night making up a crossword puzzle for a friend. the clues are based on some of the more unusual words they've recently used. they are a fan of cryptic crosswords, and although i've never even attempted one -- and this wouldn't qualify as such -- it was fun to think of quasi-puns and mini-riddles.

it seems to me like the puzzle would be easy to solve, but my format could be perceived as sloppy, or the wordplay inconsistent. part of my problem with poetry, when i studied it almost ten years ago, was my pretentious tendency to encode. how do you know when something is clear enough to be understood, not too muddled by your own set of allusions? 

any reader is invited to attempt the crossword, despite that it is replete with personal in-references; unfortunately, my cel phone didn't get a sufficiently sharp picture of the numbering system. let me know if you want a re-drawn version.

won't know for at least a week if the principal recipient can figure it out.