"Michael Martin Shea's "Rough Draft of a Poem About Heartbeats" is a creepy, violent poems that ends with a chill: "Think of her neck as a part of a body that can never taste itself," said somebody online about your poem.
_________________ Can you feel the magic? Oh, yeah
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:41 pm Posts: 23014 Location: NOT FLO-RIDIN Gender: Male
Thanks y'all! I read that blog review in the spring--first time I've ever been publicly critiqued. The anthology comes out in November so I can post the poem then. Pretty excited, didn't expect this when I applied on a whim.
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given2trade wrote:
Oh, you think I'm being douchey? Well I shall have to re-examine everything then. Thanks brah.
Thanks y'all! I read that blog review in the spring--first time I've ever been publicly critiqued. The anthology comes out in November so I can post the poem then. Pretty excited, didn't expect this when I applied on a whim.
Can you post a link to where we can buy the anthology when it's out?
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:41 pm Posts: 23014 Location: NOT FLO-RIDIN Gender: Male
Harmless wrote:
Mickey wrote:
Thanks y'all! I read that blog review in the spring--first time I've ever been publicly critiqued. The anthology comes out in November so I can post the poem then. Pretty excited, didn't expect this when I applied on a whim.
Can you post a link to where we can buy the anthology when it's out?
Will do. It'll be on Amazon and (I think) in Barnes and Noble? But maybe only special B&Ns.
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given2trade wrote:
Oh, you think I'm being douchey? Well I shall have to re-examine everything then. Thanks brah.
IMO, free-verse poetry is true. non-free-verse poetry is practice in word play like bookworm or scrabble. It's too defined and confined. One might be forced to forego the most poignant and eloquent way of saying something on account of syllables. That ain't right.
_________________ Can you feel the magic? Oh, yeah
Great read, Mickey. I'm not educated enough in the field of poetry to have any real opinion on the subject matter but I certainly had no trouble making it through your piece regardless. Good stuff.
IMO, free-verse poetry is true. non-free-verse poetry is practice in word play like bookworm or scrabble. It's too defined and confined. One might be forced to forego the most poignant and eloquent way of saying something on account of syllables. That ain't right.
Free verse doesn't mean 'free form' like so many think it does, it just means free of pre-determined (or received) form. I would say a knowledge of form and meter is essential for any good poet, and every poem should have structure. Also, having to obey the rules of a form can often force you into different, and more interesting, territory than free verse. You're forced to go beyond your first ideas. Like, a bad sonnet or a bad haiku is... bad, and we've seen a lot of them. But to write a very good one is difficult, so if you do it, that sonnet or haiku could be fantastic. Basically nothing is original unless the artist feels challenged. But everything has rules. Good songs, or good anything, build on what's been done before. Just an alternative view.
Edit: great article, this. If I understood you right, one of the things you're saying is that the either / or attitude-clash between the New Formalism and Free Verse brigades can feel pretty arbitrary, and that 'structure' and 'form' are frequently used on both sides. The best poets have a good handle on both. Would that be right? Is there such a thing as a poem without form? I doubt it, not a good one anyway. The question is whether we stick to received forms or invent them. I try and do both, and I've literally only just written a sequence of six loose sonnets which I'm waiting for a paper to get back to me on. I feel pretty confident they'll get published, and it'll be my first foray into consciously writing in a received form (well, in public anyway... I try it all the time, and it mostly fails).
IMO, free-verse poetry is true. non-free-verse poetry is practice in word play like bookworm or scrabble. It's too defined and confined. One might be forced to forego the most poignant and eloquent way of saying something on account of syllables. That ain't right.
Free verse doesn't mean 'free form' like so many think it does, it just means free of pre-determined (or received) form. I would say a knowledge of form and meter is essential for any good poet, and every poem should have structure. Also, having to obey the rules of a form can often force you into different, and more interesting, territory than free verse. You're forced to go beyond your first ideas. Like, a bad sonnet or a bad haiku is... bad, and we've seen a lot of them. But to write a very good one is difficult, so if you do it, that sonnet or haiku could be fantastic. Basically nothing is original unless the artist feels challenged. But everything has rules. Good songs, or good anything, build on what's been done before. Just an alternative view.
I understand and appreciate what you're saying now
_________________ Can you feel the magic? Oh, yeah
IMO, free-verse poetry is true. non-free-verse poetry is practice in word play like bookworm or scrabble. It's too defined and confined. One might be forced to forego the most poignant and eloquent way of saying something on account of syllables. That ain't right.
Free verse doesn't mean 'free form' like so many think it does, it just means free of pre-determined (or received) form. I would say a knowledge of form and meter is essential for any good poet, and every poem should have structure. Also, having to obey the rules of a form can often force you into different, and more interesting, territory than free verse. You're forced to go beyond your first ideas. Like, a bad sonnet or a bad haiku is... bad, and we've seen a lot of them. But to write a very good one is difficult, so if you do it, that sonnet or haiku could be fantastic. Basically nothing is original unless the artist feels challenged. But everything has rules. Good songs, or good anything, build on what's been done before. Just an alternative view.
I understand and appreciate what you're saying now
I agree with the bold quite a bit. Subscribing to a form, even just to begin, has worked out well for myself in the past.
_________________ absinthe makes the heart grow fonder And so it goes...
Edit: great article, this. If I understood you right, one of the things you're saying is that the either / or attitude-clash between the New Formalism and Free Verse brigades can feel pretty arbitrary, and that 'structure' and 'form' are frequently used on both sides. The best poets have a good handle on both. Would that be right? Is there such a thing as a poem without form? I doubt it, not a good one anyway. The question is whether we stick to received forms or invent them. I try and do both, and I've literally only just written a sequence of six loose sonnets which I'm waiting for a paper to get back to me on. I feel pretty confident they'll get published, and it'll be my first foray into consciously writing in a received form (well, in public anyway... I try it all the time, and it mostly fails).
Yeah, definitely. I'm writing a follow-up piece for another blog and the first paragraph is that, essentially, the idea of non-formal poetry is ludicrous, and certain minor poets aside, everyone worth reading writes with an acute awareness of form, whether its perceived or inherited or not. I'm personally really awful at form and I don't think it suits what I'm trying to do for the most part, but then a lot of my free-verse poems recently are highly formal in that they employ certain repeated rhetorical devices or tropes. Basically I think this luddite Childress is wrong about a lot of shit. That's my main point on these essays.
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given2trade wrote:
Oh, you think I'm being douchey? Well I shall have to re-examine everything then. Thanks brah.
Joined: Wed May 09, 2007 5:58 pm Posts: 1259 Location: Western Masshole Gender: Male
I work part time at this rehabilitation center for people with TBI, dementia, or psychotic behavior. There's so much gold there but I have to respect their privacy. So I've been working on a story based on my experiences. I'd like to share it but I don't want to post anything I might one day want to publish. Is there any way to privately share it with anyone interested in providing feedback?
_________________ Paul McCartney told me to never drop names.
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