Lord Ganus23 Feb 2003

Why am I wrong? Because I've not been an altar boy or a male hustler? Am I to believe that this needs to be the case for a reader to appreciate this work? What exactly, is a poetic success if this is? If I am comparing this story to what 'they' have taught me to compare it to, isn't everyone? And isn't any criticism of anything by anyone based on a comparison of the thing and what 'they' have taught us to believe? Do you even want criticism? It seems you are principally opposed to it. The somber reality behind this poem has nothing to do with this as a piece of poetry. I could write a poem about my cat that died when I was in the third grade but it would take more than the fact that my cat died to make the poem good. It would take more than imagery, skill, craft and all the rest - it would require some evidence of an effort to say something to some audience. Without this evidence the poem would be pointless, and by extension disrespectful to my dead cat.