I agree to some extend but some poets and artists are quite gentle souls and 
if they don't have a great self esteem and write from the heart with an 
element of truth then to give too much negative crits can be soul destroying 
for them.
When a poem leaves the writer it takes on a life on its own and no longer 
becomes the property of the writer but that of the reader. Like a mother or 
father for their children the writer can get quite emotional if the crits 
are too bad.  I think this applies especially to new writers.
Sometimes I find poems these days are so clever and well crafted that they 
defeat the object of writing and the message of the poem is lost and I don't 
understand a word. For me simplicity is the key as well as writing from the 
heart and writing the truth as they see it.
My way of getting around this is to say to myself "sing your own special 
song even if no one else sings along". Words from a pop song written from a 
German group I think are called Scooter. Best wishes Sally


>From: Gary Blankenship <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Dealing with critique--a personal view
>Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:27:33 -0800
>
>The other thing is that I think we should take poetry seriously, but I 
>think there is a danger in taking ourselves and our own poems too 
>seriously. Authors in the past
>could laugh at themselves sometimes.
>
>Maz, excellent.
>
>Thanks and smiles.
>
>Gary
>
>
>Gary's book, A River Transformed at 
>http://www.lulu.com/content/178110<http://www.lulu.com/content/178110>
>
>Jan and last FireWeed ready to read.
>at http://www.mindfirerenew.com<http://www.mindfirerenew.com/>.
>
>Gar's blog at http://garydawg.blogspot.com/<http://garydawg.blogspot.com/>

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