2013 Poem a week comment thread

[Desejo]

Use this thread to comment on the poems in Tzara's 2013 poem a week thread. There are already some that are exceptional (at least I think so).

Please take care not to quote the entire poem in case the poet may want to submit for publication, per Tzara's advice. If you know how to do it, linking to the post may be the best way (if the poet deletes the post, the link will be invalid which should eliminate previously published concerns). Or say something like Bogusagain's brilliant ogre poem...etc.

Comment away, poets!

 

[bogusagain]

Second week, second poem. Is anyone else finding this challenge a tyranny?

I thought one poem per week would be small beer but since my brain hasn't been very fertile lately and I haven't been giving it very much exercise, it's proving more difficult than I thought.

 

[champagne1982]

Second week, second poem. Is anyone else finding this challenge a tyranny?

I thought one poem per week would be small beer but since my brain hasn't been very fertile lately and I haven't been giving it very much exercise, it's proving more difficult than I thought.

Yes I have been grasping at poorly formed straws for subject matter. It is a challenge when you're as rusty as I am proving to be. Maybe we need to get drunk and that bit o' liquorly lube will ease us into week 3? Not tonight though. Gotta work in the morning.

 

[bogusagain]

Maybe we need to get drunk and that bit o' liquorly lube will ease us into week 3? Not tonight though. Gotta work in the morning.

'Work, the curse of the drinking classes.' As our friend Oscar pointed out.

He also said 'Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.' So make sure you have a future.

 

[Desejo]

Greenmountaineer - "It" is a surprise - very different from most of your work.
I think it works well.

 

[greenmountaineer]

Greenmountaineer - "It" is a surprise - very different from most of your work.
I think it works well.

Thanks. "It" was an experiment, a substantial re-write of an earlier ugly duckling poem once posted on Lit.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Wow! Some great things happening over in the mother thread. Well done poet participants!

 

[HarryHill]

I agree

Wow! Some great things happening over in the mother thread. Well done poet participants!

..
Yes T, there are some nice ones, such as the one you just left today. I have been double posting there and to the new poems page. I would encourage those that post in the 2013 challenge to occasionally break the monotony of my morning read and leave something in NP to snack on with my coffee. Not much to comment on for the most part. I welcome all comments on my new submission.
Harry

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Thanks Harry, just saw your post.

In progress...

So Chelsea Does My Reading

You look at my palm.

There you see
a heart line
a head line a life line

a hand opened to you,
enveloping your hand.

Somewhere there is a tree
newly nestled into earth
that will erupt straight

from the ground to the sky.
I know that is cliché.
I know. I know.

But can you tell me
whom I will meet
to finally stub this loneliness
away like a dead cigarette?​

I'm not sure this is worth continuing.

Part of the reasoning behind this particular challenge is that good poems take some time to be built, or be constructed.

I know. Right now I'm trying to build some kind of Frank Gehry image.

Not working, is it?

That's not important, trying it is.

 

[HarryHill]

Tzara the rewrite is very nice, almost like two different poems in terms of power and focus.

 

[Tzara]

Thanks Tessie. You know your encouragement always makes me swoon (like I need help swooning, since I'm like a serial swooner).

But I appreciate it nonetheless.

And thanks Harry, as well. I'm not sure I like the poem yet, but I like it better, mainly because of the strophe break change.

If anyone tells you line/strophe breaks aren't important

hit them over
the head​

Poet joke.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

I find this challenge frustrating - I want to delete much of my stuff. It's like servingup uncooked food. Grrrrr!

 

[bogusagain]

I find this challenge frustrating - I want to delete much of my stuff. It's like servingup uncooked food. Grrrrr!

It's a tough old challenge and I'm failing badly. The simple pressure of writing one poem a week is as tough as rising to the occasion at a particular time on a particular day of the week, even if she is having a bad hair day!

 

[greenmountaineer]

Me too. I feel like I'm on a poetry treadmill, initially having had a lot of energy, but now I'm feeling winded.

What about once a month?

 

[Angeline]

Maybe it could be opened to include older poems that are being heavily edited or rewritten. I bet we all have lots of those. And if one isn't inspired to write anew on a given week, well there's always editing....

(not that I've room to talk having chickened out early)

 

[greenmountaineer]

Maybe it could be opened to include older poems that are being heavily edited or rewritten. I bet we all have lots of those. And if one isn't inspired to write anew on a given week, well there's always editing....

(not that I've room to talk having chickened out early)

I think that's a great idea, Angie, if we're going to continue at the pace of once a week. To be honest, two of my submissions were edited versions of poems previously submitted. I enjoy editing a poem that's a few months (or years) old as much as I do coming up with something original. I joined this site to learn more about the craft of poetry, have learned a lot, but still have much to learn.

I'd also suggest any edited poem have a hyperlink to the original. While there's been a number of good entries in the almost 3 months of the challenge so far, there's hasn't been much feedback. The hyperlink would allow the reader to juxtapose the two poems, think about the differences, and comment if interested.

Whatever the outcome, I'll stay with the process, but I'm sensing the law of diminishing return.

Mr. T, you started this challenge. Care to chime in?

 

[Tzara]

The intent of the challenge was to encourage writing throughout the year, not necessarily new writing (I think most of us agree that the real writing is in the editing), so feel free to revise poems as part of the challenge. If you want/need to spend 52 weeks editing a single poem, I'm perfectly OK with that.

I would also open it to things other than poems. Flash fiction, pretty obviously, but even notebook entries, or random thoughts. Again, the point is to try to think about poetry and produce something each week—the point is to encourage writing as a habit, not just a "occasionally, I throw off a couple poems because I was feeling poetic" kind of thing. Poetry is a craft, and to excel at a craft takes a lot of practice.

And, yeah, we all go on vacation, get sick, have relatives descend on us for a week, so if you miss a week or two, don't sweat it. The main intent is that we try to do something poetic with some degree of frequency.

And Tessie, if it's bad, that's OK. Most of what all of us write is bad, at least the first time around.

But then one of Tzara's Principles of Poetry (not to be confused with the Fool's Rules) is Do not be afraid to be bad.

I think I've probably been pretty bad in every poem so far this year, but I've been both stressed and busy on other things. I hope, though, I've been cheerfully bad.

And that counts for something.

 

[twelveoone]

The intent of the challenge was to encourage writing throughout the year, not necessarily new writing 1.(I think most of us agree that the real writing is in the editing), so feel free to revise poems as part of the challenge. If you want/need to spend 52 weeks editing a single poem, I'm perfectly OK with that.

I would also open it to things other than poems. Flash fiction, pretty obviously, but even notebook entries, or random thoughts. Again, the point is to try to 2.think about poetry and produce something each week—the point is to encourage writing as a habit, not just a "occasionally, I throw off a couple poems because I was feeling poetic" kind of thing. Poetry is a craft, and to excel at a craft takes a lot of practice.

And, yeah, we all go on vacation, get sick, have relatives descend on us for a week, so if you miss a week or two, don't sweat it. The main intent is that we try to do something poetic with some degree of frequency.

And Tessie, if it's bad, that's OK. Most of what all of us write is bad, at least the first time around.

But then one of Tzara's Principles of Poetry (not to be confused with the Fool's Rules) is 3.Do not be afraid to be bad.

I think I've probably been pretty bad in every poem so far this year, but I've been both stressed and busy on other things. I hope, though, I've been cheerfully bad.

And that counts for something.

1,2, and 3
we agree to agree, there is just something wrong with that

 

[HarryHill]

Me too. I feel like I'm on a poetry treadmill, initially having had a lot of energy, but now I'm feeling winded.

What about once a month?

..
PUSSY...
..
Seriously folks? Don't you keep a journal where abstract ideas are penned? This is a great chance for personal growth. ...and I'm just teasing GM.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

..
PUSSY...
..
Seriously folks? Don't you keep a journal where abstract ideas are penned? This is a great chance for personal growth. ...and I'm just teasing GM.

I was referring to the "half baked" condition my poems appear in each week. Now I know it's o.k to polish them as part of the challenge I feel better.

Kudos to all who persevere, it isn't easy.

 

[bogusagain]

I would also open it to things other than poems. Flash fiction, pretty obviously, but even notebook entries, or random thoughts. Again, the point is to try to think about poetry and produce something each week—the point is to encourage writing as a habit, not just a "occasionally, I throw off a couple poems because I was feeling poetic" kind of thing. Poetry is a craft, and to excel at a craft takes a lot of practice.

That takes a lot of pressure off. It is like the good lady saying 'You don't have to go like Flynn every time!'

 

[Angeline]

Love today's post from greenmountaineer:

Eliot's Anglo-Catholic Confession

It is a delight to read. That is all.

 

[greenmountaineer]

Love today's post from greenmountaineer:

Eliot's Anglo-Catholic Confession

It is a delight to read. That is all.

Thanks. I enjoyed writing it.

 

[HarryHill]

Half baked?

I was referring to the "half baked" condition my poems appear in each week. Now I know it's o.k to polish them as part of the challenge I feel better.

Kudos to all who persevere, it isn't easy.

..
If you haven't read T2's new post in 2013 challenge, don't miss it; a full loaf of crusty bread slathered with salty butter.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

..
If you haven't read T2's new post in 2013 challenge, don't miss it; a full loaf of crusty bread slathered with salty butter.

Ta very much 'arry.