Reading Poetry

All right. So, here's an example of the majority of "poetry" on this forum.

I glanced out the window
and I thought
why now?
Why me?
I fiddled with my jacket...
stuck, alone,
red.
Lost in a world of red.
How could I ever be
what you wanted me to be
mom?
Why do the raindrops cry?

That took me roughly three seconds. It means nothing, it makes no sense, and it's not funny. It has no structure, no feeling, no anything. That looks like the skeleton of a decent poem; brainstorming perhaps, but if you're going to go that far, why not spend some time on it and make it good? I'm not good at sports, so I don't play them. If you're not good at poetry, DON'T WRITE IT.

I'm ashamed of the majority of this forum. I don't mind little cute things; in fact, I find them charming and amusing. I don't mind everything free verse, because I can really tell when there is thought behind the words... but poetry is something that I take very seriously. I spend a lot of time on my poems because I respect them. This certainly doesn't apply to everyone, but the serious poets out there can understand where I'm coming from. If you're going to write something that will be a complete waste of my life and yours, don't.

For my next trick, I shall make you all disappear.

I'm going to have to disagree with this one... whilst what you said about poetic structure etc was correct, don't you feel it's unfair to measure a forum such as Poetry on ability? i'm not great at writing poetry, it just doesn't feel right for me. oddly enough, i adore writing plays and am just beginning my first venture into iambic pentametre writing, and i can do it when it's a character speaking... but that's not what i wanted to say here.

from what i've read, it seems that NAO is open to people who are prepared to use common courtesies and make a basic effort. but the fact of the matter is that we don't know how long somebody has spent on a poem.

I take your post as a warning never to post poetry... and i imagine many other users will as well. you may not know the impact that you are having on people all around the world at this moment. can you honestly ask someone to stifle their creativity?

why not comment on these poems and use the poetry forum like any other forum? use your knowledge and experience to better others, not to squash their spirit and creativity amongst fears of inferiority...

~lemon

Well, I'm a lemon. Piss on me and I'll only get stronger.

I have a tendency of writing things in a furious passion and saying things that I don't mean.

HERE is an example of a poem to which I am referring. This is what I find disrespectful.

"Plastic faces, crooked nose,
just one more mask
for this flesh ho.
Silicon tits, detachable dick
give me new skin,
make a fore clit.
I'm a flesh ho
to the utter end,
I have more plastic
than Dupont can mend.
What to say,
I'm but a skin slut,
elastic cock, rubber cunt."

As for a warning never to post poetry, that's ridiculous. This is a public forum and people are free to post as they please. (Hence my previous post.) I don't run this website, and I don't profess to. I spoke too quickly when I said "majority," and I apologize. That was wrong of me, since I have only seen a few really offensive examples. I have no problem with the majority of things written on this website. If I don't like it, I don't have to read it... but my example poem offends me. If you enjoy it, I applaud you. Perhaps your mind is a bit more creative than mine... but the truth is, writing on this website exists to be judged. If your poetry is too sensitive to be judged, why would you post it in the first place? Perhaps my former post was just one big poem, and you didn't understand the depth that I intended. Isn't that your opinion after all? If I should be THAT understanding of everyone else, shouldn't you be that understanding of me? (No, you shouldn't.) If I think your poem is bad, I will tell you so. That's the way it works. If you think my poem is bad, you may tell me so. It's not a huge, dramatic, disgusting, emotional thing.

It's a forum.

For my next trick, I shall make you all disappear.

This post was edited by Stoic_Slaughter on Jun 22, 2005.

I have read a lot of the so called poetry in this forum. i am well aware that it is becoming an issue, particularly with users posting multiple poems a day that are essentially badly constructed sentences with "enter" pressed to many times... however, i merely tried to point out that there are more tactful ways of handling the situation.

truth be told... NAO was to be my last solace, but the judgemental fuckers who rated my post mediocre just crushed the last of my spirit. i hoped that i could find comfort here as i once did. the comfort of having a routine, of having people to talk to, and subjects to debate and think about. clearly this is not an option so now i'll end my short charade.

lemon = no mel.

i returned here for the reasons i said above, but i've changed so very much in the past few months and did not want to be judged on what i was before so assumed this new name, which is/was a reminder of everything i do not want to be.

but christ, now i see it was wrong of me to dream of finding a new place in this clique here. yet another event that has spiraled out of control in my life. it has become pattern of late, and quite frankly, i like control.

so NAO, go to hell. i hope your egos find solace in your own self praise. you clearly do not want to allow people to make an effort. dont bother contacting me, i wont reply.

-MelMel

Well, I'm a lemon. Piss on me and I'll only get stronger.

Your post didn't deserve that rating at all.
That's ridiculous.
I can see why you'd be furious; I would be too.
Best of luck to you.

For my next trick, I shall make you all disappear.

This post was edited by Stoic_Slaughter on Jun 22, 2005.

I think I kind of have to agree with lemon/MelMel, though I understand what Stoic Slaughter was saying.

As a matter of fact, she was one of the people I was trying to get to come back when I came here (because I read her poetry and liked it alot...), before the ensuing mess of my stalker and his multiple personalities on the NAO...before I got lambasted for trying to save the very fucking forum that came about because I was one of the last people who wrote poetry here to bitch that there was no forum for it. My bitching, excuse me for tooting my own horn, pretty much got us this forum. Not the best way to get it, but it DID, nonetheless.

And then I saw what my stalker was doing to it. And what other people were doing to it with some of the filth I saw. And the repeated posting of 3,4,and sometimes 5 posts in one day to the poetry forum. Sooooo... I posted seven, namely #32939, #32938, #32937, #32936, #32935, #32934, #32933. I figured if people couldn't see the ridiculousness of posting five poems in one day, maybe they could see it with Seven. Never mind the unnoticed pun on the oh-so-infamous 'Seven Deadly Sins', as in, oh say, the one of gluttony - not that I am Catholic, mind you. I did that with some of my raw, uncut poetry... to prove a point. And it did. It got the discussions going.

And then, apparently, people just decided that my poetry didn't matter. That I was nothing but one of those idiots who flooded the poetry forum with crap. Not bothering to page back to before the destruction of the poetry forum began.

Not bothering to pay much attention to other people's attempts to suggest a thread of skillfully written haikus, or skillfully written pantoums. I tried the same thing Bunk tried when I first came here. Search for his post on pantoums. Just a few clicks of the mouse, and ....voila!

I posted a few poems here and there, after the forum was finally created. I read others contributions daily. I rated, and sometimes commented. Prior to my string of seven posts done to wake people the fuck up to what was happening, I had only posted '3 in a row' once: one was my poem, the second was a legally quoted poem by my friend Paul, and the last was a compilation of beautifully written poems by Junior High Kids. Just click on the links if you want to go there. It's not rocket science people.

Oh, somebody with an overdeveloped ego will slap me down for that one. Hm. Should I delete? Don't think so...

There's a post listing excerpts from 'Poetry for Cats', for your edification... and a post commenting on a poem by Joseph Stroud, which I thought was excellent writing. Again. Not my own.

I haven't posted much of my own poetry lately. When I came to the NAO, my poetry is what got me noticed. People had very nice things to say. Then things went on a downward slope.

I think the last poem I posted was the one called Billy Goat Island, which looks like a bunch of unrelated words not very carefully written out. But then again, so do some of Tori Amos' lyrics, if you read them; and I wrote that poem after reading some Tori Amos' lyrics. I figured I'd post it to see if people could keep their minds open.

But then, a lot of people thing Tori Amos is pretentious and confusing. A lot of people think her lyrics/poetry take no work. And a lot don't think that. On that note, has anyone here at all read Carole Maso's Break Every Rule? Check a copy out from your local library and peruse it please. Educational. Definitely. God I wish I could hang with Maso at Brown, rather than trying to write poetry here.

Poetry means everything to me, and I write it for myself now. I don't really want to share much of it with the NAO anymore... definitely not the really good stuff. Sorry. That's how I feel about the reception I get now after pushing so hard for this forum; and after still trying to fight for it by putting up posts representative of other ways of approaching the 'poetry forum' than just posting ones' own poetry.

But I give up. What gives? Sorry it's so lengthy, but the way people treat this forum, and my poetry as well now, makes me sick, for the most part. With a few exceptions. I don't feel like name-dropping here, 'cause I'm not looking to kiss ass.

Oh, and I don't know if anybody caught this, but there is a post providing a link to Alexander Pope's poem which inspired the movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Unfortunately, his poem is longer than all of the poems I have written this year combined. Might be too long for some people. But that's another subject. I'll let y'all do your own digging on that one. I've done enough.

I think the last poems I wrote here that anyone really took seriously were the one about the Yellow Brick Road, and Black Fire. Find them if you must. Sharing my poetry here has almost become a dead issue for me.

Stoic Slaughter, I commend your suggestion. I am sorry that you inadvertently ended up being the 'fall guy' for MelMel's frustration, but you seem to have stronger nerves than even I. What MelMel seemed to be responding to didn't seem to only include the 'poetry forum'. Probably, and I am guessing... it was the last straw for her.

I've pulled those straws. I know what they look like. And I've tried to forgive and forget as well. My hard feelings are toward the general trend of crap that pervades this forum. AND, the general lack of sleuthing skills or clarity of thought.

I laud you MelMel for having the balls to sneak in here, and see if people really can see you for who you really are on a black screen. And I have to agree with you, at least partially... the idea of posting anymore poetry here myself looks like a black screen to me.

Sorry. That's how I feel. And that's how I see it.

My mind is made up...not like my bed, which is a mess.

This post was edited by rosyxxx on Jun 22, 2005.

The problem is that 99 out of 100 posts in the Poetry forum give the rest a bad name. I think restricting the forum to users with, say, 1 red star or more, would somewhat help.
That, and somehow limiting the number of superficial, self-centered, angst-ridden teenagers who stumble over NAO when in fact they're looking for LiveJournal.

When life hands you a lemon, that's 40% of your RDA of vitamin C taken care of.

Amen. Aum. Om.

My mind is made up...not like my bed, which is a mess.

so NAO, go to hell. i hope your egos find solace in your own self praise.

I can understand your frustration, but don't you think it's a little harsh to judge a whole community by one single person who is unable to grasp the (admittedly simple) concept of ratings?

When life hands you a lemon, that's 40% of your RDA of vitamin C taken care of.

...

Have you even read a single poem that she's referring to? I don't care if you call it art. You see, I'm not as nice as stoic at all. To me, teenagers who write poetry as vulgar and thoughtless as the one she quoted need to wake up.

I support having dreams. I don't think people dream enough in this world. But you can't simply put words together, say it means something to you and call it poetry. Educate yourselves.

Breathe.