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Inbetween Lovers/Blueprint (Glosa) by Ranger
(quatrain taken from 'Blueprint' by god'swife; "Dream wife" from 'Penny Loafer Blues' by ALChemy) Tonight I hate your hands and their craft I cannot sleep as you do Pressed against the cool walls Of sudden and strange houses I should not secretly confess like this Love with the lips, you always insisted But then again, you prefer emotions to be audible And I, ever the silent I Have invisible wings wrapped about you all the time Remarkable pain killer to take with every draught That bears you up, away into the arms of some foreign sun When early gold returns new lore will be spun Although I'm prepared to accept it may seem like I laugh Tonight I hate your hands and their craft Your kiss, I'd guess, is as fleeting as your scarlet dress I have no such flamenco flame to scorch me as I rest I sleep alone. Does it make me seem strong in Solitude? Mine is a scarf to cloak this voice but leave the body longing How many times I have bargained, drunk with God To take this lust - I'll plead again tomorrow Take my heart, take my rib Bring me the dream wife I've glimpsed in print But don't think of me at night when you have much to prove I cannot sleep as you do Many evenings die, spent waiting for your Knight Oblivious to the irony; a tall shadow splits in directional light Ghostly spectrum - I admit my favourite shade is jealous Of those skeletons of your offering whom you took inside Too physical to hide Too visible to avoid recall Then you tell me I'm the only one who protects you through every storm And you reduce me just a little more With each new figure summoned to burn, to blaze, to fall Pressed against the cool walls In awe of the enchantment you engender Days fold, stretch, decrease and end remembered As tallied photographs of wasted air which does not thrill I wish I was that Knight of myth, of sword, of skill For he would be a blinding tempest wrapped in silver swirl Whereas I am just the heir within this shirt and trouser hold Who will watch the current make your banner wave And if love is unknown, then I ought not say How I hate that the mystery you espouse is Of sudden and strange houses

Up the ladder: Take Four
Down the ladder: Lullaby

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Arithmetic Mean: 8.666667
Weighted score: 6.8333335
Overall Rank: 338
Posted: April 6, 2006 9:05 AM PDT; Last modified: April 6, 2006 9:48 AM PDT
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Comments:
[9] Dovina @ 70.38.78.229 | 6-Apr-06/11:54 AM | Reply
You have embellished the modern poem "Blueprint" with a tale of yore, which its author may find appalling. But you keep just enough “photographs” and modern language to cause wonder as to whether you jest, mimic or jab. Good poem.
[n/a] Ranger @ 86.131.45.56 > Dovina | 7-Apr-06/12:00 AM | Reply
Cheers D. I'm hoping god'swife will read it and tell me what she thinks of it sometime. That poem of hers set my mind going like nothing I can remember for a long time.
[n/a] god'swife @ 71.103.98.44 > Ranger | 19-Apr-06/11:27 PM | Reply

There are some good strong lines and images. 'ever the silent', 'drunk with god', 'bring me the dream wife I've glimpsed in print', 'I admit my favourite shade is jealous', 'and you reduce me just a little more'.

I understand this has a certain structure that must be abided by and I know structure has much to do with choices, but the only way I can possibly critique this is simply as a poem, so bear with me if I make suggestions which go against the structure. My assumption, due to your ability to create images and sounds, is that you sincerely want to improve. Anne Sexton once said about her teacher at Boston university, the poet Robert Lowell, that "He works with a cold chisel with no more mercy than a dentist. He gets out the decay. He didn't teach me what to put into a poem but what to leave out." I have always been good at getting precisely to the point. I'm no Robert Lowel that's for certain, but many people have used me as an editor for every kind of writing from business letters to love letters. I don't know how much good I will do you, but- I know I can't do you harm.



[n/a] god'swife @ 71.103.98.44 > Ranger | 19-Apr-06/11:30 PM | Reply

I should not secretly confess like this
Love with the lips, you always insisted
But then again, you prefer emotions to be audible

This is very diffucult to understand on first read. The lack of a period at the end of the first line you wrote along with the comma between -...lips, and you always insisted- confuses what your trying to communicate. There should be a period at the end of line 1(when I refer to line numbers I'm not counting the first quantrain). the first piece of information, that you shouldn't confess, ends there. What she says is related but it is a seperate image. Then you reconsider how 'she' might like your confession, but alas, you don't confess, in fact you become silent and then the next 3 words tell us you have wings and then they're wrapped around 'her'. I am not saying you can't display many images in a small quantity of words. What i am saying is that here, without periods, pauses or sustained images the reader is sopreoccupied with trying to follow your train of thought that they can't relate to the poem. A reader can only be moved by art that strikes a cord in them. If they haven't experienced what you're discribing, then your discription should make them feel that they can imagine what it must. Ultimately you're trying to convey human existence, not some fabulous display of words and images, all poets are born with the ability to do that. The craft of writing is the ability to take an insight or emotion and express it, not only with style, but above all, the writer must do it with all sincerity. Say only the things that help your point get across. Everything else must go.
[n/a] Ranger @ 86.137.108.141 > god'swife | 20-Apr-06/1:37 AM | Reply
Okay, let's see if I can clarify the meanings in here, and then I'll set about looking at editing this one.
I think (having read your comments) in hindsight, that this is more abstract than I first thought it to be. The fact that it doesn't wholly follow the 'obsession' theme of Blueprint might not help my cause here, but I didn't want to just do a rewrite of your work, I wanted to add something to it.
The first three lines gave me a headache. 'I should not secretly confess like this [in writing, hidden away]/Love with the lips, you always insisted [open, honest speech and kissing]/But then again, you prefer emotions to be audible [no good being the 'strong and silent' type]. I guess I am going to have to rework this although getting round the structural constraints is going to be tough.
After that - yes it does deviate. I thought I could get away with it through the 'silent I' play to connect the two sections, but maybe it didn't work. 'Invisible wings' is actually pretty vital to the piece. I haven't included any filler in this, every line is relevant. I just need to make it a whole lot clearer. Maybe I should title it something like 'The Best Friend's Complaint'. Because that is the idea behind this. It's the traditional tale of 'her best friend being madly in love with her'. Hence the last two or three lines of each stanza, and the storm passage which you picked up on in your next post.
[n/a] god'swife @ 71.103.95.188 > Ranger | 20-Apr-06/10:11 AM | Reply
In my opinion this follows the 'obsession theme' very strongly. Don't worry about following or not following the poem that inspired you; this is your poem. Concentrate on what you want me to understand about this situation. Also I think at this point if you really want to understand the process of poerty writing you need to step away form the glossa format. There are no rules that say you can't write a free verse poem which begins with lines from another's poem that inspires you, or that you can't finish each stanza with one of those inspirational lines. That would elimate some of the stress from editing. If you are willing to give up the glossa idea for now and if you can commit yourself to working on this and nothing else intil it's good, I am willing to concentrate on helping you along the way for as long as it takes.

I should not secretly confess like this.

'This' is a pronoun which is used when the writer has already established what the pronoun 'this' is replacing. How am I suppose to know your saying you shouldn't confess in writing?
The verb 'writing', or any of its synonyms, is no where to be found. Why can't you say: I should not secretly confess in writing/on paper/with a letter/with my pen etc...? You can't use a pronoun when nowhere can be found the noun which the pronoun is substituting.

Love with the lips, you always insisted.

This line is completely understandable. Anyone reading it would come up with both the image of talking and/or of kissing/making love. That line needs no further work.

But then again you prefer emotions to be audible.

Again this line says nothing about the true meaning your trying to represent. there is nothing about her dislike of the strong and silent type. I could only come up with the images of her either wanting to make you wail from heartbreak or her sexually teasing you intil you screamed. And even then I was uncertain about my interpretation. Say what you mean. Conveying the information you want to communicate(in this case, that she doesn't like the silent type) is the first step you need to focus on.
[n/a] god'swife @ 71.103.95.188 > Ranger | 20-Apr-06/10:12 AM | Reply
Invisible wings are perfectly fine. If this is a metaphor you strongly believe represents an inportant point then leave it in. Because of all the other things going on before and after you introduce the wings, the air is taken out of your sails. You're sputtering along.

"I haven't included any filler in this, every line is relevant".

Aye, there's the rub. That is the poet's great dilemma. Each expression, each phrase discribes something you felt. You just can't use them all at once. You have to choose, but if you focus on message first and style second, you will improve dramtically. You have to be ruthless about getting down to the bare bones. Once you establish a good foundation then you can test which embellishments make the poem beautiful. As for a title you should use --Madly in love with my bestfriend-- as a working title. If, while you're editing, you use a title that states what the poem is about, you will always be able to look to the top of the page and re-focus on what your poem is really suppose to be about.

As I said, I'm happy to give some guideness intil this works, but I am pressed for time these days, so I won't always be able to get back to you right away.
[n/a] god'swife @ 71.103.98.44 > Ranger | 19-Apr-06/11:30 PM | Reply
I have come up with some incredibly well put together sentences that I had to just throw away because they obscured the point I was trying to express. And guess what, they're often my favorite lines at the beginning. I try and try and try to find a place for them but they just don't fit. Anyway the point is- this poem says a lot about nothing. I know that you are trying to express something inspired, and without inspiration buddy, you might as well pack up and leave,so that means you are driven, but you need to use some of the frankness of ordinary speech.

you do just that with "then you tell me I'm the only one who protects you through every storm and you reduce me just a little more". That's just fucking beautiful. It's not only what you say here, but how you say it, which gives this image the reality it needs to be understood. Any human being could imagine themselves thinking that thought. And for some you will have put into words feelings they had but could not express. That's poetry my friend. It's not a bunch of fancypants on a catwalk. It's engaging the audience and holding them all the way to the end of your poem. And that last line, that crucial line, must either hit them right in the gut or make them see cleary for a moment the loveliness and wonder of the world.

not in one of these stanzas can I make the connection between what's written before hand and what's written in the last line.
Is there suppose to be a relationship there?

The heart is in the right place but this poem is hokie overall and that's a real shame because there are so many exquisite lines contained within it. Keep plugging away.
[n/a] Ranger @ 86.137.108.141 > god'swife | 20-Apr-06/1:54 AM | Reply
Righto, well I gave the connecting theme in my reply above. I'll now explain each stanza.
1) 'Scene-setting'. This is something that the protagonist is dying for her to know, but doesn't dare say it. Silence and invisibility = the old cliche that you never sense what you have until it's not there. Pain killer = the way in which the protagonist is always there afterwards to 'pick up the pieces'. Foreign sun = moon = one night stands/short term relationships (which will inevitably hurt the protagonist as well).
2) He is talking about, essentially, boredom and loneliness when she's away on her jaunts. 'Dream wife I've glimpsed in print' is one hundred percent reality, hence the reference to ALChemy's poem.
3) Despite enjoying brief flings, she also wants that apparently universal desire of women (according to Hollywood, at least) - the knight in shining armour, while all along there's the protagonist right next to her.
4) Continuation of stanza 3, seeing each new lover (the current), and giving in to the knowledge that confessing all this won't do any good whatsoever.

It's a monstrously cliched story, but I've tried to practise what I preach and make it original. It'd be quite nice to create new cliches.
[n/a] Ranger @ 86.137.108.141 > Ranger | 20-Apr-06/1:55 AM | Reply
And, of course, thank you for reading and making suggestions. You're right, I do want to improve. And I honestly think I can. That's why I came back.
[n/a] god'swife @ 71.103.98.44 > Ranger | 21-Apr-06/12:38 AM | Reply
I want to make sure I've got this right; the theme of your poem is unrequited love, which is also the theme in Blueprint. Correct? When I asked how are the lines connected I didn't mean what THEME connects In Between Lovers to Blueprint. I meant that the actual lines used at the end of each stanza have no connection to the previous lines in the same stanza. In other words, you're not leading us to the last line of the stanza. Forget about Blueprint or connecting themes, just concentrate on your ideas and how you're going to make my lines your own by using them within the context of your story.

1) The scene is only visible after you decifer it for us. None of your metaphors have anything to do with each other. you have to stay with one metaphor for at least each stanza, and you have to use a metaphor that is plausible. what do the invisble wings represent? Love? Jealously? Obsession? then say:

A pair of invisible wings is my love/jealousy/obsession .....
or
My love/jealousy/obession is like a pair of invisible wings.
or
I wrap my love/jealousy/obsession around you;
a pair of invisible wings
to bear you up and keep you
far from pain.

You can't use painkiller as a metaphor for invisible wings and then say they take you to the arms of some foreign sun. Painkillers can't take you to the arms of a foreign sun. Invisible wings can but it's to late! You changed them into painkillers. Painkillers can take you to the arms of nirvana or to the arms of sleep; the arms of relief etc.... If you want the other guy to be a foreign sun then you have to keep the wings. If you wanted you could make her a comet/angel/Icarus or anything else that can make it to the sun. You make a mess of things when you keep changing the metaphors. If you want to introduce a new image you can try using a simile:

My invisible wings like death
take you away to the arms of a foreign sun.

Wings can carry you off to a foreign sun and death can carry you to either heaven or hell which can be represented as a foreign sun. All the metaphors and similes are related to each other. They make one cohesive image for the reader to build on.

You also start with a silent written confession but 'she' would rather you love with the lips i.e. with speech or kisses. But it could also be that she wants your emotions to be heard outloud.
How can you say but then again?

She doesn't like A she insists on B, but then again she prefers b. There's no logic.

I don't like waffles I insist on pancakes, but then again I prefer flapjacks. It looks to me like your trying to do to much to soon.

And as far as ordinary language and memorable poetry is oncerned Blueprint is completey written in common language.

Tonight - I - hate - your - hands - and - their - craft.
I - cannot - sleep - as - you - do
Pressed - against - the - cool - walls
Of - sudden - and - strange - houses.
[n/a] Ranger @ 62.252.32.15 > god'swife | 24-Apr-06/2:41 PM | Reply
'Painkiller' passage - it's not the painkiller that takes her away, it is the draught. As in, you take painkiller (tablets) with a draught of water, and a draught (breeze) can carry you to the sky. The wings are arms around her, which she knows she can always go to regardless of whoever else she's been away with (awkwardly phrased explanation).
Okay, I'm getting too defensive there. I can see the links without problem, but I guess maybe I do throw too many metaphors around. Maybe I should keep them all and expand the poem, or perhaps I'll edit a few out. I'll rewrite this as a completely new poem; I want to keep this version so that I can see where the improvements came from, and generally to compare the two (plus it's got a good score =D).

Blueprint - I actually disagree that the language is ordinary. Or if it is, I don't think there's anything in my piece that isn't especially common. No more so than the idea of 'sudden houses'. People might pick out certain words and say 'nobody uses that in everyday speech'. The same with the play on 'draught'. Nobody really uses those sorts of plays. But that's what poetry is, to me. It's a game. It's a challenge to hide things under the surface, to apply double meanings and see if people spot them. Good poetry is when it's made beautiful.
Anyway, that's off topic. I will rewrite this after having a good think. Having seen the recent lack of comments on here, I'm not sure I'll get much from posting it on the ranker. Do you use any other sites? I feel like I'm haven't really advanced recently (slight writer's block as well) and could do with learning new tricks.
[n/a] Ranger @ 86.137.108.141 > god'swife | 20-Apr-06/2:34 AM | Reply
Having said all that, however, I should also say that I'm often hesitant to use 'ordinary' language in any more than minimal quantities. Whereas poetry is partly about detailing life it is also about making an impression. It is about being memorable, and ordinary language very rarely does that. Even the passage I took from Blueprint is not ordinary. Whenever I read a poem I think 'could I have written that?' And if the answer is 'Yes, easily', then I get turned off to the poem. I don't want to find poetic writing easy; I want to test myself. And if that means that I test the readers, then great. The trick is to provide an easily-accessible surface story if I've buried a more complex meaning in the language. It will also mean that I improve my own reading of text. It's no good being able to write well if you can't read well, in my opinion.
Anyway, these are just general points, I will spend some time looking at how to incorporate your advice into my writing.
[10] ecargo @ 167.219.88.140 > Ranger | 20-Apr-06/6:54 AM | Reply
If by "ordinary" language you mean simple language--well, to an extent, you're already doing that. And it's WHY you've improved so much in my opinion. Even this poem--yes, there are places where you 'commit acts of poetry' (a capital crime), but much of it is pretty simply stated. Most of the best lines are, anyway: "How many times I have bargained, drunk with God
To take this lust - I'll plead again tomorrow."

Here's what Louise Gluck, the former Poet Laureate in the U.S., said on the topic of ordinary--well, simple--language.

"The axiom is that the mark of poetic intelligence or vocation is passion for language, which is thought to mean delirious response to language’s smallest communicative unit: to the word. The poet is supposed to be the person who can’t get enough of words like "incarnadine." This was not my experience. From the time, at four or five or six, I first started reading poems, first thought of the poets I read as my companions, my predecessors – from the beginning I preferred the simplest vocabulary. What fascinated me were the possibilities of context. What I responded to, on the page, was the way a poem could liberate, by means of a word’s setting, through subtleties of timing, of pacing, that word’s full and surprising range of meaning. It seemed to me that simple language best suited this enterprise; such language, in being generic, is likely to contain the greatest and most dramatic variety of meaning within individual words. I liked scale, but I liked it invisible. I loved those poems that seemed so small on the page but that swelled in the mind; I didn’t like the windy, dwindling kind. Not surprisingly, the sort of sentence I was drawn to, which reflected these tastes and native habit of mind, was paradox, which has the added advantage of nicely rescuing the dogmatic nature from a too moralizing rhetoric."

[From Louise Glück, "Education of the Poet," Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry (New York: Ecco, 1994) 4-5.]

Gluck's not the final word on the topic, obviously--she's talking about her own experience, and certainly there's room for variation and experimentation. But there's something to be said for creating magic from common cloth. The trick to it is making simple, ordinary language seem fresh and your own, and using all the other poetic techniques--meter and the way the words play together--to make it something special. That's something not too many people can pull off, IMO--but it's worth striving for, I think.
[9] drnick @ 24.176.22.254 | 6-Apr-06/12:55 PM | Reply
Yes!!! This is the good stuff, my friend. I embelishes how I feel so much that I want to read it to certain people and then tell them to "fuck off." There are so many good lines, I'll name some favorites: 3rd line, 2nd stanza...1st line, 3rd stanza...lines 7-8, 4th stanza...and of course the end line is golden. I wouldn't change a thing, I'm giving you a 9.5.
[n/a] Ranger @ 81.156.73.86 > drnick | 7-Apr-06/12:38 PM | Reply
Good to see it works! I feel it needs more work on the rhythm, but I'm working nights at the moment and as such my brain isn't operational between the hours of 7am and 10pm. Therefore edits will wait.
Anyway, how are things going these days?
[9] drnick @ 24.176.22.254 > Ranger | 8-Apr-06/12:20 PM | Reply
Things these days? Drinking like a rock star, and studying like one too. I need to cut back on the drinking, and I should probably work harder on my classes, but I'm so sick of school...I'll be done in december and I don't know what the hell im going to do after that. I'm just trying to have a good time without fucking up everything. Haven't had much time to write, I'd like to write something soon, though, and have it turn out as good as this. What about you? How's life in the proverbial "fast-lane?"
[n/a] Ranger @ 86.131.55.210 > drnick | 9-Apr-06/9:46 AM | Reply
Fast-lane? Not for me right now. I'm working nights at my friendly local supermarket to pay for uni, so my time is divided loyally between sleep and work. And I slept really poorly today (it's 5.38 in the afternoon, I've been up for hours whereas I wouldn't normally wake till 6 or 7) so I look and feel like shite. But I console myself with the knowledge that it's only temporary and the work really isn't as bad as it's cracked up to be. Writing will be an unknown joy for me as well in the next couple of days, my brain can just about cope with reading the 'sell-by' dates on stuff, no more.
I know what you mean about school, half my lectures are completely uninspiring at the moment and I should be essaying like a maniac but I'm really not interested. Next year will be different.
[n/a] Ranger @ 86.131.55.210 > Ranger | 9-Apr-06/9:48 AM | Reply
I'd already said about my work hours...I must be losing the plot...
[9] Scarlett @ 66.210.233.6 | 6-Apr-06/1:48 PM | Reply
Rich and vivid, spins a web around the reader ~ you cannot break the silken strands to stop midstream.
[10] Lifeboatman @ 170.65.128.6 | 6-Apr-06/5:38 PM | Reply
this one very well written... nice feeling after reading it too..10
[10] ecargo @ 167.219.88.140 | 7-Apr-06/9:26 AM | Reply
Holy shit, Ranger. Most excellent. Hate to nitpick this one at all, because I think it's really good--some really terrific lines and good rhymes and half rhymes throughout--a truly nice tribute. I really enjoyed it.
[10] INTRANSIT @ 205.188.117.10 | 7-Apr-06/12:41 PM | Reply
Salute!
[10] ALChemy @ 24.74.100.11 | 7-Apr-06/4:49 PM | Reply
I sensed a tinge of angst in this but it wasn't corny like those teeny-bopper poems, it was just enough to make the reader feel the youthfulness in the love poem.
She'll like it I think. It's like a modern Romeo and Juliet minus the suicidal crazy love stuff.
[n/a] Ranger @ 86.131.55.210 > ALChemy | 9-Apr-06/9:39 AM | Reply
Yes, angst does feature. It was tempting to label it as a Pimple, but I think I controlled the language enough to stave off that fate. In my opinion, there is no sentiment that shouldn't be written about in poetry, as long as it's written well.
I hope she does like it. I rarely manage to write fitting tributes.
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