on I heart you by thetrev
17 Jan 2007, 12:32 PM
Pretty good, original. I like your nouns acting as verbs--they work in a weird and very cool way; it's what gives this a unique twist I think. Overall, focused, sharp, though the parenthetical bits distract, detract from the whole, I think.
on almost 12.30 by Dental Panic
17 Jan 2007, 12:26 PM
Hi DP. This is like an amuse bouche--tasty but leaves one wanting more. Full of suggestive (in a nonprurient sense) little oddities that seem to imply more, more--the last line lost me though. And I'm not sure what the tie-in with Genesis is (assuming that's why you referenced it in your amusing exchange with our resident longbeard/provocateur)--but I can be dense about such things.
replying on Same old rancour (a yellow stream of consciousness) by ecargo
16 Jan 2007, 2:03 PM
Hiyas Ranger! How's it going? Still in lovely Wales? I'm going to be there in April (hoping to get some paddling in Pembrokeshire if time allows; crazy water there)--also hoping to talk Z into Eisteddfodd (however the hell it's spelled) later in the year. Who knows--we may have to track you down. ;-D
Kayaking's great--love the off-season. Gotta run, but hope you'll stick around a bit--I'm just back myself; we'll see what happens.
Hope you're doing well! How's uni?
Kayaking's great--love the off-season. Gotta run, but hope you'll stick around a bit--I'm just back myself; we'll see what happens.
Hope you're doing well! How's uni?
on The Mikado's Poetic List by Engelbert Humpalot
26 Sep 2006, 7:00 AM
Ha! Wow--it's better than Eric Idle's updated version, even (yeah, I'm a geek and had to see how it compared to the original and otherwise). Love how you kept to the original rhyme scheme in places but utterly subverted this. I have to say--yes, I have to say it--"what a real great write." ;) Very fun. Well done.
replying on Farmhouse, Southern France (storm on arrival) by Ranger
25 Sep 2006, 10:04 AM
Well, Ranger--no ringing medallions and no race results--as we rounded the first island, in big surf and winds gusting to 30mph, the marine police called the race because of conditions and sent the lot of us back. But it was great fun while it lasted, and the afterparty was great. Thanks for the encouragement--no doubt I'll write something about the experience.
Lots of great kayaking in Wales, you know--some major BCU (British Canoe--Union?) centers and lots of top-class kayakers in some serious, serious water.
Lots of great kayaking in Wales, you know--some major BCU (British Canoe--Union?) centers and lots of top-class kayakers in some serious, serious water.
replying on Farmhouse, Southern France (storm on arrival) by Ranger
25 Sep 2006, 9:43 AM
To be honest, Ranger, I don't think anyone outside of a cartoon has ever actually said "leaping lizards!" But, yes, officially it's an American expression (olde tymey).
replying on In the hollow (rough) by ecargo
25 Sep 2006, 9:40 AM
How kind! ;) Pricker is a colloquialism (I guess) for a briar or a thorn. We called briar patches "pricker bushes" in my little part of the world.
replying on Shadows In Your Eyes by PoeticJustice
25 Sep 2006, 9:29 AM
Do keep in mind that the site is called PoemRANKER. If you just want to write about feelings and not have anyone comment critically on your poems, then this probably isn't the best place to post them. And I'm not being mean, just honest.
on Fun At The Gynaecologists by Edna Sweetlove
25 Sep 2006, 9:27 AM
I see the torch has been passed . . . well, it is in the 'ranker tradition, but you'll have to work at it a bit, sweet Edna, before you'll get the accolades due a Stephen Robins, let alone a -=DA=-P.I. Still, I appreciate the effort!
You left out the part about the speculum (what I like to affectionately call "The Crank") stored in ice water and the lovely queef (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaginal_fl atulence) that often occurs at the end of the procedure. I'd have to take off major points for those omissions, if I were to vote, Edna.
You left out the part about the speculum (what I like to affectionately call "The Crank") stored in ice water and the lovely queef (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaginal_fl
on Farmhouse, Southern France (storm on arrival) by Ranger
22 Sep 2006, 1:18 PM
Okay--back again. I do like this one a lot! Your meter works great, and the imagery is strong enough that the meter is almost an afterthought for the reader (which I always think is a sign that a poem is working--the "strings" are invisible and you forget the puppets aren't really people, so to speak. Yeats and Seamus Heaney are great examples of that kind of mastery--I've been so blown away by their language, at times, that only later did I realize that the form is a rhyming sonnet or whatever). I only stumbled a few places reading this:
Are climes steep? I'd lose the parens here: "(and sloping glades of grain)" Maybe recast it so your sloping glades are steep or something.
"which turned from diamanté lens to drear
in clicking like an oaken farmhouse door." [not sure I get this--what turned? and what's "clicking" modifying?]
"-It was no stream of sun â but skewing cloud"
[replace weak phrases like "it was" with stronger constructs like "we lost the stream of sun, found skewing [?] cloud]--my replacement word choices are just illustrative; I'm not crazy about them either, but the point is that if you take passive, flaccid phrases like "it was" and make them more active and dynamic, it usually adds to the strength & vibrancy of the poem overall.
And no-one seemed to know quite how it came
to be so dark, or why it stayed so long [again, two "its" seems a lot and it's such an imprecise, nonreflective word here--I'd either recast this somehow or shorten the line and not worry too much about the syllable count]
"The landscape threatened violence that day-
as solar flowers threw their manes around [stronger, more threatening word than "threw" maybe? or maybe it's "flowers" that, er, throws me--I think the threat needs to be more implicitly reflected in this line; flowers just aren't threatening (unless they're creepy plant-things like bladderwort or Venus Flytrap.) ]
with total disregard; the screaming slaves [what are these? workers?]
in chain-gang rows.
I told you it had left a ribbon track- [nice--sort of made me think of cut to ribbons, because of the earlier mention of glass in heaps]
the scent of water in an earthen pitch,
and lizards leaping like a joyful king. [I like the lizard/king analogy (and, no, nothing to do with Mr. Morrison)--I've had the Roethke poem, To a Young Wife, in which he begins "My lizard, my lively writher" in my head for days, so I loved that you had a lizard here. I think "leaping" might be something else though--it's too remniscent of "leapin' lizards!" (maybe that's an American expression)
But still you watched the crackling, heavy orb,
like insects passed too soon for storm or grace
[what's like insects?]
an eye cast downwards â fractured morning ice
of hurricane and tempestâs broken tide.
Very cool. So many good lines and strong images in this! Good poem.
Are climes steep? I'd lose the parens here: "(and sloping glades of grain)" Maybe recast it so your sloping glades are steep or something.
"which turned from diamanté lens to drear
in clicking like an oaken farmhouse door." [not sure I get this--what turned? and what's "clicking" modifying?]
"-It was no stream of sun â but skewing cloud"
[replace weak phrases like "it was" with stronger constructs like "we lost the stream of sun, found skewing [?] cloud]--my replacement word choices are just illustrative; I'm not crazy about them either, but the point is that if you take passive, flaccid phrases like "it was" and make them more active and dynamic, it usually adds to the strength & vibrancy of the poem overall.
And no-one seemed to know quite how it came
to be so dark, or why it stayed so long [again, two "its" seems a lot and it's such an imprecise, nonreflective word here--I'd either recast this somehow or shorten the line and not worry too much about the syllable count]
"The landscape threatened violence that day-
as solar flowers threw their manes around [stronger, more threatening word than "threw" maybe? or maybe it's "flowers" that, er, throws me--I think the threat needs to be more implicitly reflected in this line; flowers just aren't threatening (unless they're creepy plant-things like bladderwort or Venus Flytrap.) ]
with total disregard; the screaming slaves [what are these? workers?]
in chain-gang rows.
I told you it had left a ribbon track- [nice--sort of made me think of cut to ribbons, because of the earlier mention of glass in heaps]
the scent of water in an earthen pitch,
and lizards leaping like a joyful king. [I like the lizard/king analogy (and, no, nothing to do with Mr. Morrison)--I've had the Roethke poem, To a Young Wife, in which he begins "My lizard, my lively writher" in my head for days, so I loved that you had a lizard here. I think "leaping" might be something else though--it's too remniscent of "leapin' lizards!" (maybe that's an American expression)
But still you watched the crackling, heavy orb,
like insects passed too soon for storm or grace
[what's like insects?]
an eye cast downwards â fractured morning ice
of hurricane and tempestâs broken tide.
Very cool. So many good lines and strong images in this! Good poem.
on Farmhouse, Southern France (storm on arrival) by Ranger
21 Sep 2006, 2:22 PM
"solar flowers threw their manes around/with total disregard"--nice, especially the play on flowers/flares (in my mind anyway!). Didn't have time to do more than skim this (have a kayak race to train for and scant hours of sunlight left) but will def come back to it tomorrow.
replying on In the hollow (rough) by ecargo
21 Sep 2006, 2:20 PM
Thanks--it does need some cutting in places I think. I usually let rhymes fall where they will, unless I'm writing to a strict form (and even then I usually prefer slant/near rhymes)--it's fresher, less, stilted, to do so, I think.
replying on The Secret by ecargo
21 Sep 2006, 2:12 PM
Hmmm . . . weep like the Walrus weeps, you mean? http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walru s.html
Ah, those dashing prawnes prawnatroopers of the last Great War, with their jellyfish parachutes and swordfish bayonets.
Poemranker Tales (maybe it should be Follies?). ;-D I always did (mostly) like the self-referential stuff, when it was done well. Be interesting to see what you come up with!
Ah, those dashing prawnes prawnatroopers of the last Great War, with their jellyfish parachutes and swordfish bayonets.
Poemranker Tales (maybe it should be Follies?). ;-D I always did (mostly) like the self-referential stuff, when it was done well. Be interesting to see what you come up with!
replying on In the hollow (rough) by ecargo
21 Sep 2006, 2:07 PM
Also good points (as usual)--I broke the lines pretty indiscriminately. I think it wants to rhyme (or maybe I want rhymes--I'm never sure if I'm driving or along for the ride). Thanks!
replying on In the hollow (rough) by ecargo
21 Sep 2006, 1:57 PM
Good crits--thanks very much for the comment and the read. Hoping to polish this a little at some point.
on The Surfer's Prayer by flock
20 Sep 2006, 10:26 AM
This has a nice simplicity in rhythm and tone. Watch your cliches (e.g., sea of troubles).
on Fare Price (Final Version) by Wakeboarder20
20 Sep 2006, 10:16 AM
"Fare price" as in a pun on fair with the connotation of travel (i.e., to heaven)? If so, it might be a little overplayed with 3 repetitions as well as the title.
It is a good topic for poetic examination. I wrote an Xmas poem once like this, something like "you'd think these shelves held souls--buy now! We'll throw in sanctity/and absolution, absolutely free!" So I get what you're saying here, I think.
It is a good topic for poetic examination. I wrote an Xmas poem once like this, something like "you'd think these shelves held souls--buy now! We'll throw in sanctity/and absolution, absolutely free!" So I get what you're saying here, I think.
on Staring through you by creepshow
20 Sep 2006, 10:12 AM
Wow--hope that released some of the obvious animosity. If you peel away some of this, you'd have the makings of a decent "fuck you" zombie poem.
This definitely has elements of "swords into ploughshares" but it's also about motion and time/lost ritual. Sickle harkens back to plough but it's also a reference to the moon. I think I was going for something along the lines of DH Lawrence's "Under the Oak" (this pales, obviously, in comparison to that!), but this really isn't about anything concrete, which is probably where it fails the most. It lacks a fulcrum or concrete focus.
I'm not sure what you mean in your final comment about "conventional sentence structure in the last one"--despite the enjambed line, it is a complete sentence, as is the one that follows. Anyway, enough of me on me. Thanks for the comment and vote.