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Critique my poems

Blogs > Trainrunnef
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1 2 Next All
Trainrunnef
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States599 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-06 17:49:13
December 06 2012 17:45 GMT
#1
I usually do not name my poems so I'll just separate them with a spoiler otherwise please feel free to critique and comment on my works

1
+ Show Spoiler +
Shadows cast light between tree limbs
while light casts shadows through over rippened leaves,
There’s too much life here.
The roar of bird chirping,innumerable really,
Blends into one sound
No longer beautiful and distinct,
Just
Loud


2

+ Show Spoiler +
Despite what your senses will have you believe,
I never touched you.
Those were not my lips on your neck
Those were not my hands gliding down your waist
It was merely a quantum reaction,
Your cells repealing mine at the atomic level.
A scientific exchange of intentions
Producing an equal and opposite reaction.
What existed in the microcosm of space between my fingertips and yours was the friction between our energies, converting your will into life like superheated plasma discharged during fusion.


3

+ Show Spoiler +
Galaxies on the verge of merging,we dance around questions and pull on each other’s souls while we pull off our clothes.
Like stars torn from their orbits, shirts and shoes are cast off into the universe that was reduced to my bedroom.
This is the stage for our performance.
A waltz that lasts eons until 2 become 1,
Revolving around a common center.
We struggle against the force that bought us together so we don’t lose our individual shape,
But it is too late.
Arms and legs have already twisted in their attempt to find balance.
Eyes are already locked in orbit.
The black holes at our centers engaged in a tug of war,
Each trying to gorge itself on the existence of the other.


4

+ Show Spoiler +
I may have felt that way, once.
The sun rising and setting according to your time zone,
My moon phases synched to your menstrual cycle,
Clock hands, like time, have the tendency to keep moving,
So I can’t say I still feel that way when My hands have also moved.


5

+ Show Spoiler +
F is for fiction.
Grandiose stories whispering of villains and heroes.
I played the hero in some,
The villain in others.
F is for fiction though,
Daily afternoon naps
Hours at work
Ivy league universities
Hospital trips.
I’ve got binders full of the fiction
We’ve based ourselves on


6
+ Show Spoiler +

I was a writer words were my tool, more than that they were my partner finishing my sentences as though we had a link,
a bond.
connected by an umbilical chord that allowed me to express.
but see, words left me.
Now my sentences arent worth completing.


7

+ Show Spoiler +
He walked, hands jammed in pockets.
He talked, hands jammed in pockets.
He showered, hands jammed in pockets.


8

+ Show Spoiler +
They never told you that
he who laughs last laughs alone they never told you that
he who laughs last laughs alone they never told you that
he who laughs last laughs the hardest
cause there aint no one else to hear him


9

+ Show Spoiler +
I weave miracles with syllables of ooo’s and ahhh’s pronounced between your legs.
I speak all dialects.
My perfect diction creates echoes demonstrated by your vocal chords.
I am your speech therapist.
Tongue twisters and rhyme games to help you more clearly say what you want to say - I’ve got you studdering. Oh…oh….oh!
Let me mouth it more slowly so you can articulate.


10

+ Show Spoiler +
An introduction,
A few words to pass the time,
First impressions like worn out lines on an etch-a-sketch,
Subconscious decisions,
An exchange of information,
Double-speak glances like daggers thrown across a crowded room,
Maybe they will hit their mark.


11

+ Show Spoiler +
Dilated pupils,
Stretching horizons eager to capture their universe,
what secrets rest in your darkness?
What troubled thoughts and weary words echo in that vast singularity?
Windows do not change size so I cannot call this the window to your soul. Perhaps it is a pit.
Edges worn where your essence has tried to escape.
Are you trying to escape now? Is that why your eyes grow larger when you see me?


*****
I am, therefore I pee
micronesia
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States24745 Posts
December 06 2012 17:58 GMT
#2
I can jot down random words
in ways that don't make sense.
You may call it poetry
I call it being dense.

lol sorry I just have trouble appreciating poetry when it is posted on TL. I guess I just don't understand where stuff like this comes from:

"while light casts shadows through over rippened leaves"

casts shadows through over rippened leaves? What?
ModeratorThere are animal crackers for people and there are people crackers for animals.
Trainrunnef
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States599 Posts
December 06 2012 18:07 GMT
#3
casts shadows through over rippened leaves? What?


light casts a shadow... without light there is no shadow not sure what the difficult part is here?
that the leaves are over rippened? nothing to do with the light casting a shadow really, maybe its the use of the word through that causes confusion... as nasty as your response was it did point out something that I already had an issue with but couldn't place my finger on so thank you
I am, therefore I pee
bardtown
Profile Joined June 2011
England2313 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-06 18:22:52
December 06 2012 18:18 GMT
#4
Beginners should never write in free verse. You don't have the skill to pull it off.

To expand: free verse takes a much higher level of structural and rhythmic awareness than any other form of poetry. All you're doing here is putting ideas into lazily combined sentences. That's not poetry. Just because it's free verse doesn't mean that every word isn't important. Start with iambic pentameter or something similar. The enforced structure will help you to choose your words and force your ideas into a rhythm.
Trainrunnef
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States599 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-06 18:40:28
December 06 2012 18:23 GMT
#5
Beginners should never write in free verse. You don't have the skill to pull it off.


lol definitely the wrong forum for this... maybe i should have specified constructively criticize my stuff.
Thanks for nothing

EDIT: if i thought i had the skill to really pull it off you think i would be posting on a forum?

EDIT2: Thanks for your edit. I come from a background of spoken word so for me the pacing, emphasis and rhythm is in my head.
70% of spoken word is in the delivery, so I'm trying to challenge myself to write without having my voice pick up where i'm lacking.
I am, therefore I pee
ieatkids5
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
United States4628 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-06 18:26:46
December 06 2012 18:26 GMT
#6
On December 07 2012 03:07 Trainrunnef wrote:
Show nested quote +
casts shadows through over rippened leaves? What?


light casts a shadow... without light there is no shadow not sure what the difficult part is here?
that the leaves are over rippened? nothing to do with the light casting a shadow really, maybe its the use of the word through that causes confusion... as nasty as your response was it did point out something that I already had an issue with but couldn't place my finger on so thank you

should be "over-ripened leaves" (whatever that might mean... leaves don't ripen. fruits can ripen, but not leaves.)

and you cant cast a shadow through something, you can cast a shadow upon something. or on something.
Qwyn
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States2779 Posts
December 06 2012 18:26 GMT
#7
I for one hate poetry with any sort of a narrative structure. Fuck that. Poetry should make you think...and should let you create your own meaning...not just tell you a story or lay everything out in front of you.

But your descriptions have to have a theme, and have to makes sense...or else people will complain. You also have to spell things correctly.

Also if you are writing free verse think REALLY HARD about what your punctuation is doing...It has a great effect on how people read your work.
"Think of the hysteria following the realization that they consciously consume babies and raise the dead people from their graves" - N0
ieatkids5
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
United States4628 Posts
December 06 2012 18:30 GMT
#8
On December 07 2012 03:23 Trainrunnef wrote:
Show nested quote +
Beginners should never write in free verse. You don't have the skill to pull it off.


lol definitely the wrong forum for this... maybe i should have specified constructively criticize my stuff.
Thanks for nothing

EDIT: if i thought i had the skill to really pull it off you think i would be posting on a forum?

his post was constructive criticism, despite how you might take it. it didn't need to be worded harshly, but it was criticism nonetheless. he means that rather than jump right into free verse poetry, you may want to practice more structured forms of poetry and become familiar with those first.
Trainrunnef
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States599 Posts
December 06 2012 18:34 GMT
#9
+ Show Spoiler +
his post was constructive criticism, despite how you might take it. it didn't need to be worded harshly, but it was criticism nonetheless. he means that rather than jump right into free verse poetry, you may want to practice more structured forms of poetry and become familiar with those first.


He didn't have the further explanation when i originally responded, hence my own nasty response.
I am, therefore I pee
bardtown
Profile Joined June 2011
England2313 Posts
December 06 2012 18:36 GMT
#10
On December 07 2012 03:23 Trainrunnef wrote:
Show nested quote +
Beginners should never write in free verse. You don't have the skill to pull it off.


lol definitely the wrong forum for this... maybe i should have specified constructively criticize my stuff.
Thanks for nothing

EDIT: if i thought i had the skill to really pull it off you think i would be posting on a forum?


It is constructive. I'm telling you to write in predefined structure until you have the skill to try and create structure. Hopefully you'll give up on free verse completely though. I dislike the notion that because a poem has metric structure it is less expressive than free verse.
The only reason you should be writing in free verse is if you're going to convey some meaning using the structure of your sentences (you don't, they're only complete sentences for the sake of making it easier for you to express them - you won't learn poetic expression like that) or if you genuinely have the ability to make a more aesthetic poem in free verse than in regular metre. And beginners generally don't have that ability.
Chef
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
10810 Posts
December 06 2012 19:02 GMT
#11
You might be right about one thing: This is the wrong forum for this kind of stuff. Actually there is no right place, to be honest. It's very difficult to get satisfying criticism anywhere, and TL, while it has its art types, also has a lot of people who you won't want to hear from.

However, you wrote "My moon phases synched to your menstrual cycle," so basically you are gonna get a lot of people who don't know how to put into words why your poetry does nothing for them. It doesn't do anything for me either, the handful that I read.

So in my mind you've made two mistakes if you want advice: You posted too many and you posted them indiscriminately. If you want good advice, you probably need to go to someone you think is a good writer and ask them personally if they'll give you any advice. You'll hear about what they think and their own philosophy, which may not help you, but at least you will get a focused response. On a forum, no one who knows what they're talking about wants to argue on the internet with a stranger about why their poetry is bad.
LEGEND!! LEGEND!!
Trainrunnef
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States599 Posts
December 06 2012 19:06 GMT
#12
duly noted ^^
I am, therefore I pee
Deleuze
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United Kingdom2102 Posts
December 06 2012 19:42 GMT
#13
I particularly like number 7.

What are your influences? Why do you write? Do you perform regularly?

micronesia is right, it is very easy to string together some ambiguous sentences that formally resemble poetry. It is quiet another thing to create something with intensity and impact simply through the combination of how you right about your subject - even having the 'how' as your subject. But it always can connect to something elsewhere, unexpected. These are the challenges of all the Arts and Humanities.

Certainly have a go at formal verse forms - William Blake is ideal to look at since he is a master of so many forms and his expressions have an overwhelming combination of simplicity and complexity. Getting to grips with scansion is your first port of call, I recommend simply having a go a writing your own limerick and focusing on rhythm over rhyme.

On rhythm and structure -

Poets that work in spoken word, that is, as composed orally with the intention to be performed, tend to gravitate towards ballad rhythm anyway, which is the 4/4 of the poetic world - even if you break lines across or merge lines together the over all result is something that natural vocalizes into a 4/4 rhythm

On the other hand, with number 7 there is a more syntactic turn of structure, something which you repeat in number 8 and throughout your work - give exploring this a shot?

What your writing about I guess is OK, there are some fairly sickening cliches in there, why don't you experiment on writing a poem about your cat? Or TL for that matter. I'd suggest you approach the subject matter of 'you' and 'me' in a romantic context with more experience - otherwise you will end up recycling the same old patterns. You run the risk of oscillating between romantic poems and poems about naval gazing loneliness.

Sorry! I'm not very good at evaluative criticism!

Well done though, it's good to get your stuff out there. Expect people to be hostile though
“An image of thought called philosophy has been formed historically and it effectively stops people from thinking.” ― Gilles Deleuze, Dialogues II
Antylamon
Profile Joined March 2011
United States1981 Posts
December 06 2012 20:53 GMT
#14
Phew, thank god.

There was an... interesting... blog post about poetry recently... Needless to say, I required extensive use of brain bleach.

I am of the opinion that most of your poetry is lacking in structure. It doesn't have much rhythm to speak of. Unfortunately I am not the one to ask for more critique than that.
Trainrunnef
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States599 Posts
December 06 2012 20:56 GMT
#15
I used to perform in high school often but its been years. I still wrote a little bit in college, but not as much as I would have liked.
At this point I've just come out of a long relationship during which i wrote nothing, and I've been finding the joy in putting my thoughts on paper again. These are mostly recent poems with the exception of 7 & 8 oddly enough.
I will admit some of these are very selfish. By that I mean some have references to inside jokes where if you didn't know the history you wouldn't get it, like 5.

I think most of the issue is with how I started my OP These are all poems I wrote in under 20 mins (again except 7 & 8), very little work has gone into them and what I was hoping to get out of this was which poems had the most potential, and how to get it to resonate more with a wider range of people. Poorly crafted OP's get poorly crafted responses i guess.
I am, therefore I pee
Mothra
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States1448 Posts
December 06 2012 21:03 GMT
#16
If you want actual criticism, there are forums devoted entirely to it:

http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/index.php

Carnivorous Sheep
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Baa?21244 Posts
December 06 2012 21:08 GMT
#17
Some of these definitely scream "I need to be read out loud." Try reading some of them and recording them lol

Please explain 5 a little bit...
TranslatorBaa!
Trainrunnef
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States599 Posts
December 06 2012 21:11 GMT
#18
Please explain 5 a little bit...


Ex girlfriend was full of shit.
It was a long distance relationship so when shit got rocky she would fake some huge story (cancer)
we would take "naps" together after her "radiation"
she lied and said she got accepted to columbia university to move to NY to be here
basically any lie it took for us to stay together.
I am, therefore I pee
Fishgle
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States2174 Posts
December 06 2012 21:24 GMT
#19
On December 07 2012 06:11 Trainrunnef wrote:
Show nested quote +
Please explain 5 a little bit...


Ex girlfriend was full of shit.
It was a long distance relationship so when shit got rocky she would fake some huge story (cancer)
we would take "naps" together after her "radiation"
she lied and said she got accepted to columbia university to move to NY to be here
basically any lie it took for us to stay together.

holy fuck man. That's way more interesting than the actual poem. Put "radiation naps" somewhere into it.

anyway, prepare for a really long reply from me in a bit.
aka ChillyGonzalo / GnozL
Carnivorous Sheep
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Baa?21244 Posts
December 06 2012 23:40 GMT
#20
On December 07 2012 06:11 Trainrunnef wrote:
Show nested quote +
Please explain 5 a little bit...


Ex girlfriend was full of shit.
It was a long distance relationship so when shit got rocky she would fake some huge story (cancer)
we would take "naps" together after her "radiation"
she lied and said she got accepted to columbia university to move to NY to be here
basically any lie it took for us to stay together.


Hm. Ok.

The actual poem was pretty sketch. Felt like some poor attempt at humor and binder full of action just reminded me of romney -.-;
TranslatorBaa!
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