Re: a comment on Prologue by Dovina	23-Oct-06/2:49 PM
I read it at a poetry workshop, asking an old man to read the indented lines. Everyone thought it was rather funny. That’s a group of poets for you. I think the general public would think it’s just silly
Re: a comment on Tidal by helenwales	23-Oct-06/2:40 PM
Probably right.
Re: Slur by MacFrantic	20-Oct-06/3:42 PM
Nothingness and everything? Have at it.
Re: a comment on weather poem part 3: the hurricane (renga) by nypoet22	20-Oct-06/2:04 PM
That was 17 See their shadows and go back down Punxsutawney's never been wrong
Re: Smalltalkers by D. $ Fontera	19-Oct-06/11:50 AM
Sounds like what my father called "beating artound the bush." Not very well organized.
Re: connect the dots by daniella	19-Oct-06/11:46 AM
Ok, I looked at the site, but didn't stay there long. If you have a political statment to make in a poem, it would be better to make it, I think, rather than just referung to a URL.
Re: A DANCE OF NO TUNE by stevopoet	19-Oct-06/11:43 AM
"Heaping up dance on my hips" - good line. But starting every line with an "ing" word is a bit boring. "Shaking ones head" takes the "me" out of it. Is English your second language? If so, not bad.
Re: a comment on Your Eyes by Dovina	19-Oct-06/11:35 AM
I was experimenting with a title that’s totally unrelated to the poem, at least on the surface. Glad you like it.
Re: a comment on Your Eyes by Dovina	19-Oct-06/11:34 AM
I find it a strange thing that my work is not all considered good or that none of it is considered good. Yet it’s true as you say. I have some unusual views, I guess, and they don’t always come through well. Thanks for your comment.
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	19-Oct-06/11:26 AM
You believe that the universe is eternal. You have no proof, but it seems to you most likely, and that has given rise to your faith that it is true. Though you did not mention it, you probably also believe that intelligent life developed naturally from processes inherent in the universe. To not believe these things is to consider the possibility of God. I do not hold a belief in the eternalness of the universe. I can accept it as having started at some point in time or as having been placed in eternity by God. In either case, it is God, operating on a level beyond my comprehension, in whom I believe. I don’t know much about God, but I have more freedom to think about the universe and consciousness, and about my part in all this, by accepting God’s existence, than I do by rejecting Him. That is why I said that my faith is less than yours. The only ones without faith are agnostics. I used to be one. You’ll see from my early comments on poemranker that I’m on a journey. To where, I don’t know.
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	17-Oct-06/3:10 PM
To that I can agree, and perhaps end a another long, and delightful I might add, discourse.
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	17-Oct-06/3:01 PM
We agree on the imperative to stop population growth. We disagree on whether it can be done. We are two climbers trapped on a ledge, where we will die of exposure during the night. I say that we can take a leap to a nearby ledge, and possibly survive. You say the leap is too long.
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	17-Oct-06/2:39 PM
I will grant you “theirselves,” but just barely. You have pushed against my fence of morality just about hard enough, spared only by confession that “the obvious solution is fewer births . . .” What you don’t seem to accept is that if population growth stops, then overpopulation will never occur. We cannot predict much about the world in 300 years, except that if population grows at the present rate, our descendents will have a huge problem. Can you not see how imperative population control is for our generation?
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	17-Oct-06/1:52 PM
You have gone beyond my request - by not only considering the cause’s cause, but by considering also reasons for the cause’s cause. You have considered whether any benefit derives from gravity, and have asked whether it is reasonable to apply “human qualities to something that is not human, not living, not material.” It’s like asking how these things came to be. It’s almost like asking who made them. But as an atheist, you do not ask that. Instead, you believe that they are, and emerged somehow. My faith is less than yours.
Re: Pope Benedict And The Limbo Problem by Edna Sweetlove	17-Oct-06/12:58 PM
Already a 10! It will soon work "its" way to the best list.
Re: Work by half.italian	17-Oct-06/12:56 PM
"Loophole" is one word. A bit wordy: "This time I watched a movie that reminded me of life It woke me from boredom" could be "A movie woke me from boredom."
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	17-Oct-06/12:18 PM
Thanks Shuushin. I can’t get back to you on the deleted one, but if my world were treating me well, would I be hanging out here? I hope yours is well, but if not, pull up a chair.
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	17-Oct-06/12:12 PM
“Jesus was a pussy. I love pussy. => I love Jesus.” Jesus is God. I love God. => I love Jesus Each of these conclusions is as good as its premise and its underlying “love.” One is facetious, the other possibly sincere. One mocks theism the other embraces it. I am “Dovinator,” you say, one who makes people like Dovina – as you wish. Allow me to Dovinate you with a question: Why did the rain slide down the window? In case you are planning to mock the question with a simple cause-and-effect one-liner, consider the cause’s cause.
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	17-Oct-06/11:25 AM
You seem unconvinced of the major point I have been trying to make, as evidenced by your diversions to side issues. I agree with you on the trend back to motherhood in England and America, and I agree on the transitory nature of women’s current opinions in developing nations where most of them presently want fewer children. Those are good points, but they are not the main issue. If the world’s population grows at its current rate, then within a hundred years or so, the planet cannot support all the people, or at best, it cannot give them any minimum quality of life. The obvious solution is fewer births. Other solutions like allowing war and disease to do the job are as inappropriate as ignoring the smallpox vaccine would have been. Relying on future technology to support more people is not going to work in the long run. If you will grant me that, I will grant you “theirselves.”
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	16-Oct-06/6:27 PM
Does knowledge beget responsibility? That, I believe, is the question. Does the knowledge of how to cure smallpox, for example, beget responsibility to do all in our power to spread the vaccine throughout the world until the disease is eradicated? Few people asked, in those days, whether it was one person’s right to incur smallpox if that person wanted it. I do not say that birth control should be forced on all people for the good of future generations, but it should be recommended, encouraged, funded, and rewarded in more ways than insightful people are now doing. The suffering and death resulting from not using that knowledge promises to be greater than the suffering we would have seen if we had not used our knowledge about smallpox. Oh, by the way, typos = theirselves, echelonsof. :)