As Simon Banks said, "there's a burning love of simplicity in the best
writing".
Colin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sally James" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: Dealing with critique--a personal view
Hello Margaret. No not all . I just get bothered because I can't understand
some poetry. It seems too complicated for me. best wishes sally j
>From: grasshopper <[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: Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:14:52 -0000
>
>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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