Hello Tex,
I thank you for your attention to my work and for your suggestions.
I do not know how to respond to this without seeming like a cranky stubborn old man ... which I am ... but I will make an effort not to tick you off.
You are looking at code, and that from the narrow perspective of these e-book devices. I am looking at the meaning of the text and the amount of work it would take to adopt your style. I am set in my ways after 20+ years of this and as this thread demonstrates, learning new stuff is a real problem.
These lines are not poetry, they are single paragraphs broken up into sentences given one new line each. In theory at least a person is to stop and think at the full stop, period, end of sentence. These works are more like scripts for a movie. They were written down from an oral tradition and should be read as though they were being spoken: very slowly and disṭinctly, one sentence at a time. In other cases the sentences will be broken up into meaningful phrases.
I do not care if my code is readable by others. The text of my files is readable in source because that is how I like it, but virtually nobody in my audience will ever be looking at the code. (Well there are, interestingly enough, a disproportionate number of tech experts in my audience and I admit they will probably look at the code, but the code is not the important thing.)
I have converted files from another site that uses code for poems (these works do have poetery) identical to that which you suggest and have found it more burdensome than the coding I use and it clutters the file equally or moreso.
My code for poetry is simplicity itself:
<p class="in2"> <br />
<br />
<br /></p>
I have many thousands of files on that site, all coded in this way; balance out the possibility of work saved by your method (not by my count) and work created by making the change and factor in a typesetter with only a few more years left on his sentence vs 20+/- years needed for the re-do and ...
by my count my code for this is less typing than yours.
Using my text editor, the next generation that comes along and wants to put these works into some other format needs to press two keys: "Macros" "Strip Tags". He will then be free to recode according as he wishes.
I do not care if these works do not appear on phones. First: these works are 'sacred' and reading suttas on a phone is disrespectful — it shows haste. This stuff needs to be studied; it is not for casual entertainment. In truth it should not even be on the web. In truth, it should never have been put into writing. But we are weak and sentimental and wish to make the valuable available to the many. One way is enough to be able to say: "It is available. Easily copied. Free to use in any way you see fit." That will satisfy me when I think that I had a responsibility to pass along the information I had. Adding to the cyborgization of the human race via these things is not in my interest.
Now that I have had a little expereience with e-pub etc. I feel almost the same way about those devices. Reading in this way is not conducive to deep concentration. This is not yet a place for this stuff.
Copyright. The law is self-contradictory and in a sane uncorrupted world would be tossed. If I own a thing then I should be able to do with it as I wish (that is basic Buddhism; I could probably win my case claiming religious freedom), and anyone following my wish is free from guilt. I will act according to my beliefs in this case. I doubt it will be objected to by anyone. The law was made for Disney who wants to keep making money off Miki Mouse and authors like Mark Twain who wants his work to keep making money for his family. Fine. Go to it. That is not my thing. Leave me alone. In my case, by the nature of these works, selling them is against the rules and amounts to 'thieving in the name of the Lord.' I didn't create this work, I am merely translating it. It doesn't belong to me or to anyone. Copyrighting that work would be claiming an ownership I do not have. Translation depends on the original, and by that belongs to the original. So say I. You are talking law; I am talking ethics. On the positive side, I believe in what is being taught in these works, and that is generosity, a sophisticated ethical code, self discipline and the development of the mind and these are things I want to see available for learning both for those who have money and for those who do not. I think I am a very small fish in a very large pond and as there is no money in either my own work for me or my own work for future generations, and further there are already hundreds of copies of these files 'out there' I think it very unlikely that anyone will think it in their interest to contest my putting them into the Public Domain and chase down all the others who have made and who distribute 'illegal' copies. There's no money in it.
If I have offended you by this rant, I apologize, it was not my intent to do so. Best of luck in your career.