Re: Devictus by nocturnalism	22-Nov-05/3:30 AM
You let God beat you. Probably without any exertion on His part.
Re: a comment on Us Sinners by BrandonW	22-Nov-05/1:02 AM
Do you know this? http://www.areasofmyexpertise.com/hoboes.html
Re: Due Consideration by Dovina	22-Nov-05/12:53 AM
PS-Your gift: Q: If we could surgically remove a patient's negative emotions, and it worked better than meditation, should we do it? DALAI LAMA: Yes. Q: What if the patient didn't want us to surgically remove his negative emotions? DALAI LAMA: Use force, with good intentions. -from the Annual Conference of the Society for Neuroscience November 12, 2005
Re: a comment on A daisy chain for Nina by Caducus	22-Nov-05/12:50 AM
Do you know the story? If not, Jane Kenyon and Donald Hall were both famous poets (Jane probably the more famous) and husband and wife. Jane died in 1995 after a year-and-a-half-long battle with leukemia. For more online, check out this UVA speech from about 2 years ago: http://www.virginia.edu/uvanewsmakers/newsmakers/hall.html
Re: a comment on Prejudice and Racism by TLRufener	22-Nov-05/12:39 AM
Do you believe children have the power not to learn what they're taught? Look who's asking the questions now.
Re: a comment on Beneath the Willow Tree by cyan9	22-Nov-05/12:37 AM
I tell myself I'm doing it for myself. Besides, for all my godlessness I do have a huge, undamaged faith in the potential of the human race. Maybe I don't tell people that often enough.
Re: The Rose by sk8rs_rule_all	21-Nov-05/10:18 AM
You're young, so we'll go easy: There is an extremely famous movie called The Rose, featuring an extremely famous song called The Rose. It's regrettable, but we've decided it's best if no one ever names anything The Rose ever again. Thanks, The Human Race
Re: Prejudice and Racism by TLRufener	21-Nov-05/10:09 AM
How did you make it from "Skin doesn't matter to America's children" to "Prejudice and racism are here to stay"? Did it hurt?
Re: Taste Ghazni by eliastemplar	21-Nov-05/10:07 AM
incense, burqas. Otherwise, good. How's the kebab these days?
Re: Night song of Pattaya by Caducus	21-Nov-05/10:04 AM
"Masterpieces" seems an extremely poor word choice. Not only does it add nothing of significance to "painted", but "painted" doesn't add anything significant to it. They're not redundant, but they're the closest thing. And aren't these kids much more comparable to bagatelle or objets d'art, something cheap, mass-produced, and marketed for the poor unaesthetic masses? Even better: painted-tin Virgin icons!!!
Re: Due Consideration by Dovina	21-Nov-05/9:51 AM
Well, at least ignoring reason ignores any ways of determining whether you're better off unreasonable except the unreasonable ones.
Re: a comment on Us Sinners by BrandonW	21-Nov-05/9:49 AM
You still don't get it. When I use the word "trump" I don't mean "to trounce someone, as in bridge or cribbage or whatever". I mean "to make a trumpeting sound with one's buttocks in the interest of escape." The confusion might arise from the fact that the -=Dark_Angel=-,P.I. who originally used trump on poemranker meant the second meaning, while the -=Dark_Angel=- you're talking uses the first. The original context of trump on this particular page is the original, negative, poemranker meaning. I never intend to trump. When I do, I almost always admit it. For example: "I don't believe you. Sorry, I'm well-aware this is the comment-equivalent of a spaz." 1. I considered using lines from your poems to argue that you assume Christian-God, but then I thought, what the hell? For one, the facile (and totally correct) response is going to be that your poems don't necessarily reflect your assumptions, and besides your poems are too vague in most cases to pin them down to Christianity (the one that's a plagiarized psalm included). And for two, this is an open dialogue, right? Why don't I just ask you? I've noticed Islam, Judaism, and African animism (at least) entirely lack the following concept: Whatever you do for the least of my people, you do for God/the good of the whole. Keeping in mind that responding positively does not "pin you down as Christian" (you could be Buddhist or Confuscist, at least), how do you respond to the aboveposted concept? That's a start. 2. Having by now researched or personally experienced all the world's major religions, I've never heard anyone but a Christian say something like 'There either is a God, or there isn't'. That's nowhere near conclusive, but I'm not trying to trounce on you, I'm running an idea past you. Moreover, I'd say that only Christianity at present coexists-with/allows/encourages the kind of critical inquiry required for a person to think 'There either is a God, or there isn't.' Those are my experiences anyway. I'd be interested in hearing yours.
Re: a comment on Beneath the Willow Tree by cyan9	21-Nov-05/9:25 AM
I'm young enough to accept. Actually, I pretty much have; at least, I've wasted the last year-and-a-half of my life doing good deeds in an Arabic backwater. And I don't even have the certainty of saving Arabs from extinction.
Re: a comment on Beneath the Willow Tree by cyan9	21-Nov-05/9:23 AM
The comment's deleted. I got what you meant. The most common comment on poemranker is some variation on "I know exactly the feeling" or "I've had this same experience" - the commenter praising himself, rather than the poem.
Re: a comment on Random Sandwich, or, The Scavenger's Chocolate Wrapper by impert&ent	21-Nov-05/9:21 AM
I got two. -10-
Re: a comment on Love letter by zodiac	21-Nov-05/9:20 AM
During a brief stint teaching at an adult high school, I helped a guy with pretty bad dyslexia get his G.E.D., including getting him through Algebra and Geometry. That's still one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Re: Amber's Witness by cyan9	21-Nov-05/9:15 AM
My one suggestion is to avoid overloading your poem with adjective phrases (ie, "dwelling in the rust", "injecting the pathway", "ascending to the fire", etc.) Change almost all of them to other formulations, give it some grammatical variety. I like that you use tons of great verbs in your poems - one of the great weaknesses of this site's users is verblessness - but by making them all -ing, you make them a lot more passive than they should be. Off the top of my head, I'd say make the first line "It dwells in rust that gilds the woodland floor" and go from there. No, that's not the best possible way to phrase that line, but it's heading in the right direction, and this isn't my poem to edit, anyway. Suggestion #2: Consider dropping about half of the "the"s.
Re: a comment on Beneath the Willow Tree by cyan9	21-Nov-05/1:29 AM
I'm actually afraid to talk about something real here. We barely find enough time to talk about nothing. If I were going to talk about something here, I think it'd be this, from The Book of Questions, Volume 1: Would you agree to be totally paralysed from the neck down for a year if it would save the endangered blue whale from extinction, given that its extinction is absolutely certain otherwise? Assume that your recovery would be complete and instantaneous.
Re: a comment on Us Sinners by BrandonW	19-Nov-05/11:58 PM
PS-The best (and perhaps only dignified) way to show you don't care about an argument but ARE capable of completing it is to write the whole thing out in funny dialogue form. Your response to this is going to be that you don't care to do things the best way. Your response to that is going to be that parroting back my predictions is some kind of cleverness.
Re: a comment on Us Sinners by BrandonW	19-Nov-05/11:53 PM
This part of the conversation has had nothing to do with beliefs, strongly held or otherwise. However, you are disqualified from many subjects due to your strongly held beliefs. DOVINA: Ay, dios! He's assuming I have beliefs. He has a belief about my having beliefs! ZODIAC: You just assumed I had beliefs about your beliefs. Twice. DOVINA: I could stand up now if I tried, but I choose not to try. ZODIAC: Would you try telling me how I came by my so-called beliefs?