Dear Sally,
Are you saying that you feel poems in the past weren't 'clever and well
crafted' ? I think what a lot of people find today that there is too much
written
without any craft at all. The idea seems to be that if people feels somehow
that they are writers, and need to express themselves, then if they produce
any old stuff with line-breaks, everyone has to treat it very seriously and
be very respectful to it as 'poetry'. What I think gets forgotten is that a
poet
has to do something for readers--entertain, surprise, intrigue, delight--but
something special. What I find is that I am often just being bored by
writing
that I can't see contains anything I would regard as special--the sheer lack
of poetry, in fact.
The one word that seems to be taboo in critiques these days is the B
word--boring, which I'm often tempted to use.As a bit of fun on another
site,
I composed some Dorothy Parker-ish comments which I'd often wanted to use,
but politeness forbade e.g.: 'If the author of this poem had
anything at all interesting to say, he's concealed it brilliantly.'
I particularly admire poems which are deceptively simple, which is a far cry
from simplistic, but there are all sorts and styles of good poems.
I wouldn't defend obscurity for the sake of it, but I don't think we have to
understand poems fully--all I ask for is that something special.
Regards, Margaret
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sally James" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: [THE-WORKS] Dealing with critique--a personal view
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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