regarding some deleted poem...	27-Aug-02/8:48 PM
It's a dirty limerick. If it didn't abuse language then it wouldn't be a proper dirty limerick. If you have any suggestions, I'd be more than glad to hear them. Stick to your mission and criticise only constructively. And so sayeth -=Dark_Angel=-.
Re: father Worked Nights by poetandknowit	27-Aug-02/8:51 PM
Yeah, well that's just bollocks, isn't it? What an incredibly narrow concept of poetry. Such melodramatic ideas as 'soul' aren't needed to say what poetry is.
Re: father Worked Nights by poetandknowit	27-Aug-02/9:06 PM
You just said that. Do you feel hurt when people criticise your poetry? I do not feel hurt when people criticise mine. Perhaps you post poetry as some sort of life-affirming experience, or as therapy, or to gain approval. Otherwise I cannot see why you would be hurt. I will hit you with the cat and mother if you post that comment again.
Re: Falling in Love by disturbedone182	27-Aug-02/9:07 PM
No, I just meant that this person is about 95% likely to be a Blink 182 fan. But what would -=Dark_Angel=- know? He wants only a few crunchings and munchings.
Re: Colours by unknown	27-Aug-02/9:07 PM
No. Browne.
Re: Sacrosanct Oligarch by Frass	27-Aug-02/9:11 PM
Pfff. Too many metaphors, not enough violence. Were you using the maxim, "If it's hard to parse, it's probably profound?"
Re: you're never alone by nentwined	27-Aug-02/9:13 PM
Every time this appears on my screen, I read the first two lines and then have to actually insert my fist in my mouth so I don't scream. "in your shell you are hiding/ignoring all tidings" What were you thinking? Did you steal that from a 9-year-old's poetry competition?
regarding some deleted poem...	28-Aug-02/7:41 AM
Christof: but it wouldn't have scanned. Limericks are in compound time; you need two unstressed beats between every stressed beat. And in any case, this isn't a poem about my love for myself. It's about a very special and beautiful and magical thing which happened in my life, and which tragically and mysteriously ended. Of course, the mystery is solved in the last line. And, on further pondering of god'swife's claim that 'so her did I' is a 'rape' of the English language, I've decided that that is one of the top five most idiotic things said so far on poemranker (two of the others are also god'swife's comments). Clearly she has never read any poetry written before 1824. The whole point of poetry is to mix up an almost-rhythmic language so as to make it rhythmic, while still retaining its meaning. It helps if the language inflects, as English does in the case of 'her' and 'I'. I want to see god'swife off this site. Does anyone agree with me?
regarding some deleted poem...	28-Aug-02/11:42 AM
Christof: I read the first line with the first stress on 'years' so the only difference in rhythm from the Lear you quote is that there are two unstressed beats before the first stress, rather than one. Certainly this deviates slightly from the standard in which almost all start 'There was' with the beat on 'was', but it still retains the triplets.
regarding some deleted poem...	28-Aug-02/11:50 AM
god'swife: I have just found the following limerick by Lear which may shock and disturb you with its 'rape' of the English language: "There was an old Lady of Winchelsea,/Who said, 'If you needle or pin shall see,/On the floor of my room,/Sweep it up with the broom!'/- That exhaustive old Lady of of Winchelsea." As for definitions, I too was being somewhat flippant (fancy that!) in describing the 'whole point' of poetry as jumbling up words. I could rather say, that some of the best poetry ever written involves such linguistic acrobatics, which are a significant part of what makes it so great. In dismissing the technique as 'rape' (you have made general criticisms of it elsewhere on this site) you are also dismissing the vast majority of poetry written before the 20th century. A definition of poetry today may have to be as vague as 'anything written in a stylistic way with plenty of line breaks'. You may disagree with this. If so, I'd like to point out that the reaction of a rational person in that situation would be to state your position and then attempt to justify it by further argument. The reaction of a batshit crazy person would be to go into a sulk and keep repeating that everyone has a right to their own opinion. Which is true. But doesn't mean that everyone's opinion is right. Do you see?
regarding some deleted poem...	28-Aug-02/11:53 AM
And finally, TDLB: I tend to agree. You may have noticed that I have posted quite a few poems which I have later deleted. I will probably delete this one too. It was merely an amusing diversion from some larger projects I am currently working on.
Re: Until Then by Katie	28-Aug-02/7:04 PM
Well fucking sail away then. Or do whatever it is you have to do before you can sail away. Is this supposed to be "meaningful"? There are about 9,000,000,000,000,000 instances of writing in the world that consist of nothing but a) vague, childlike, pseudo-dreamlike imagery, b) line breaks and c) a few half-arsed attempts at rhyme, and call themselves "poems". Other people then go on to call these instances of writing "beautiful", because they apparently think that anything that's vaguely sentimental and meaningless enough to be open to their particular wish-fulfilment interpretation is "beautiful". I believe this is one of those instances. 10/10!!!
regarding some deleted poem...	28-Aug-02/7:06 PM
Katie - Doylum is a nice, honest gentleman, who has no plans to capture you, and also has not captured Father Christmas. If he offers you a ride, accept it.
Re: saving myself for marriage by Venus	29-Aug-02/7:31 AM
As for criticism, shouldn't it be "broken starfish cries"? You only have one, don't you? Or perhaps "broken starfish leaks".
Re: Incidentally, you might want to look up 'Amplexus' by Shin-Bojangles	29-Aug-02/1:18 PM
If you wish to specify that 'extremely' should be pronounced with four syllables, you could simply add a grave accent as so: 'extrem??ly'.
Re: Incidentally, you might want to look up 'Amplexus' by Shin-Bojangles	29-Aug-02/1:24 PM
Or not, as the case may be. A grave accent, as I'm sure you know, is a diagonal line from top left to bottom right. Pop it over the 'e' you want to be pronounced. I think it displays properly in poems, although clearly not in comments.
Re: Cancer Haikus by poetandknowit	29-Aug-02/4:09 PM
What a lovely complement to mine own AIDS limericks! Now all we need are some Ebola sonnets!!
Re: Apathy by nentwined	29-Aug-02/4:11 PM
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. The line starting 'can not' is really fucking irritating. The line following it is like a rejected Ozzy Osbourne lyric. This is terrible bullshit.
Re: Cancer Haikus by poetandknowit	29-Aug-02/4:13 PM
Pfff. It's not even fatal.
Re: The green mile by Ming T. Merciless	29-Aug-02/4:19 PM
You're crap.