A poll

[champagne1982]

I erred and I asked this question in the Author's Hangout. I'll try posing it to you here and maybe I will get a wider response.

I wrote a very long narrative poem yesterday. It's not long as a story at around 770 words but it would qualify for submission as one. My question for the masses is: Of these 3 choices, which category do you think I should post this in; Erotic Horror, Erotic Poetry or Romance?
____________________________

Halloween Bill

She sits in a garden
On a cold autumn night,
The flowers surrounding her
An eerie sight.
Poppies and roses
Gleam starkly white,
While glistening angels
On marble wings take flight.
She's there in the full of the moon.

The blossoms mark
The homes of the dead,
Where remnants of lives
Lie in a dark bed.
Cold stone and damp earth
Here all life has fled,
She seems to wait eagerly,
Without any dread.
She's there in the full of the moon.

She waits for her lover
Named Halloween Bill,
He comes here to find her
Answering her will.
His own needs denied
Her desires he'll fulfill,
For he loves her yet
And she loves him still.
She's there in the full of the moon.

They mark each year
Remembering the start,
That bound them together
Mating each heart,
One to the other,
Ne'er sundering apart,
A scar they both bear
From Cupid's dart.
She's there in the full of the moon.

Restless she paces,
Her skirts wave to and fro,
She hates how he keeps her
Wanting him so.
He's never early to come here
Nor late to go.
Trapped by the moonlight
As night winds, they blow.
She's there in the full of the moon.

At last he appears, breathless,
She regards his dear face,
His smile and delight
Makes her heartbeat race.
Weakly she falls into
His loving embrace,
The curve of his lips
Shaking fingers trace.
She's there in the full of the moon.

In moments they tear
At time's heartless shroud,
Returning to days when
They stood tall and proud.
Mem'ries awaken
Their love spoken aloud,
Two souls soar like eagles
Through midnight cloud.
She's there in the full of the moon.

A prayer God has answered,
Heart's wishes come true.
Two lovers together
With their hours, too few.
They share fevered kisses
Like newlyweds do,
Their time measured in moments,
That go with the dew.
She's there in the full of the moon.

She takes his hand with hers
To rest on her breast.
She wants him and needs him
Suckling the sweet crest.
Midst the ruffles and satins,
Of her feminine nest
The pink rose of her nipple,
On his lips leaves him blest.
She's there in the full of the moon.

The sighs that they heard,
The breath of the wind?
The teeth felt on skin,
The bite death's mask grinned?
The lust that they'd thought
Was it truly one sinned?
The magic of midnight
Keeps them to the earth pinned.
She's there in the full of the moon.

His fingers lift skirts,
Layers of satin and lace.
Between her smooth thighs,
He finds solace and grace.
Her body surrounds him
His need sets a new pace,
In the depths of his passion
His despair she'll erase.
She's there in the full of the moon.

With her arms she surrounds,
This warm-blooded being,
With her murmured approval,
Their kisses agreeing.
He's answered her call,
Their realities fleeing
Away in the night,
Only night owls seeing.
She's there in the full of the moon.

Closer to her he moves,
Almost begging to enter,
The well of her passion,
Her hot, liquid center.
At last he's within,
Her womb's lustful mentor,
She writhes there, impaled
On her beloved tormentor.
She's there in the full of the moon.

She trembles against him.
Her body shakes.
His adoration upon her,
She gladly takes,
All the emotion he gives her,
All the love that he makes.
Each autumn this visit,
For both of their sakes.
She's there in the full of the moon.

He spends his wet heat,
A relentless tide,
Of life's essence and power,
And elation inside,
His beloved mystery,
His unearthly guide,
The incorporeal spirit,
Of his dead, blushing bride.
She's there in the full of the moon.

He stays there a moment,
Against the cold stone,
Where each autumn he mourns her,
Bereft and alone.
He shrugs off his tears
And suppresses a moan,
'Twas good she died young
Ne'er to be an old crone.
She's there in the full of the moon.

He stands and he turns,
Reluctant to go,
Sad to leave her alone,
To face winter's snow.
He bends down on one knee,
'Tis All Saint's, you know?
To place a wreath of remembrance,
His love, the world show.
She's there in the full of the moon.

The children all call him
Halloween Bill.
He exits the graveyard
After drinking his fill
Of port wine and whiskey,
A drunkard's cheap swill,
On the morning of All Saint's
He won't come here again, until,
She's there in the full of the moon.
____________________________


I've also entered it in the Halloween Poetry Contest on the Poetry feedback forum.

 

[KillerMuffin]

It's a poem, it'll go into poetry. If you submit it as a story, you'll most likely get a politely worded rejection notice asking you to resubmit it as a poem.

 

[champagne1982]

It's a poem, it'll go into poetry. If you submit it as a story, you'll most likely get a politely worded rejection notice asking you to resubmit it as a poem.

The only thing that marks it as a poem is the form. In it I tell a story and it exceeds the word count minimum for submission into the stories categories.

Why should this effort be buried on the poetry board with it's low views and limited feedback purely because it rhymes?

 

[English Lady]

Killer Muffin is right, it'll go in the poetry section.

 

[Lord Greystoke]

The only thing that marks it as a poem is the form. In it I tell a story and it exceeds the word count minimum for submission into the stories categories.

Why should this effort be buried on the poetry board with it's low views and limited feedback purely because it rhymes?

It was very well written, but it is still poetry. If you wanted to make it into a story you should have done that. It is very good work though and I applaud you. Don't be discouraged just because poetry doesn't get wide viewership, it is still an important aspect of Literotica.

People read what they do for varying reasons. I have found most people read the stories for the outright eroticism rather than the way a story has been formatted.

Keep up the good work Champagne!

 

[champagne1982]

Poetry schmoetry. A story is a story, regardless.

It was very well written, but it is still poetry. If you wanted to make it into a story you should have done that. [...]

That's like telling a sculptor that if he wanted to make it art he should have done a painting.

I didn't hear this story in my mind as prose, so I didn't write prose. I still told the story, regardless of form. I could remove the carriage returns and turn each stanza into a paragraph. It would still rhyme and have meter but it wouldn't look like a poem.

Would that make it a romance story rather than a romantic poem?

Edited to add: Thankyou for the compliment. I'm glad you enjoyed reading Halloween Bill.

 

[DarlingNikki]

The only thing that marks it as a poem is the form. In it I tell a story and it exceeds the word count minimum for submission into the stories categories.

Why should this effort be buried on the poetry board with it's low views and limited feedback purely because it rhymes?

Lots of poems tell stories. They're still poems.

Anyway, you may consider this work "buried" in the poetry section, but it would be a lot more buried in a story section because people don't go there looking for poems, they go to the poetry section for that. People who go to the story section are looking to read stories (in story form). If this were permitted into the romance or erotic horror section you'd get backclicks at best and low votes at worst, from people who wanted to read prose. I

That's like telling a sculptor that if he wanted to make it art he should have done a painting.

No, it's more like telling a sculptor that if he wants to enter his sculpture in a contest he should enter it in a sculpture contest and not a painting contest. Or are you saying that poetry is not really art?

 

[KillerMuffin]

The only thing that marks it as a poem is the form. In it I tell a story and it exceeds the word count minimum for submission into the stories categories.

Why should this effort be buried on the poetry board with it's low views and limited feedback purely because it rhymes?

Um, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the only thing that marks any piece of work as prose, poetry, drama, whatever is the form. What marks your particular work as a poem is the line breaks and the general lack of use and attention toward sentence structure. Rhyme is device, not form.

Why should any effort be buried on the poetry board with it's low views and limited feedback purely because it's poetry? If your poem goes into stories, why should any poem not have the same opportunity to gain access to the readership the stories are after? There's a simple reason: because the readership expects to read a story when they click on a story link and not a poem.

 

[champagne1982]

Okay.. The whole purpose of this debate is to clarify what I've been told about story submissions. I once, because I didn't read the guidelines for submissions, offered a story that was too short to be accepted.
I was told that if I'd like to submit it as a poem (note: no mention of line breaks and punctuation here) then it would be accepted, no problems.

So, if a story can be submitted into the poetry section, chiefly because of the word count, then why wouldn't a poem be allowed as a submission to stories on the same criteria?

Who said anything about votes? I can always turn that option off.

Collectively, we're making a hell of a lot of assumptions about why people read what they do. Maybe, I'll just make up a story about a young woman who writes stories and poems for a site called Literotica.com.

She wrote a long story length poem and kept running into false roadblocks so decided to write a story around the poem. This is the poem in question:......... "Halloween Bill [...]"

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Champagne does have a point. A lot of stories and rambling prose are submitted as poetry simply because there is no word limit, not because it's poetry.

There are a lot of stories that could be placed in a number of different categories. They're not air-tight. Usually, unless incest or non-consent is involved, they will end up in the category the author chooses. Same thing happens here. Some elements of the story make it a poem (i.e. form), but it's still a story, and if the author thinks the characteristics that make it a story override those that make it a poem, so be it.

This isn't a first, by the way. I remember there was at least one entry in last year's Halloween competition that was formally a poem, but was, in my opinion rightly so, submitted as a story in the Non-human category, I believe.

If this is what you really want, champagne, just PM Laurel and explain this. I'm sure it will end up wherever you decide.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

This isn't a first, by the way. I remember there was at least one entry in last year's Halloween competition that was formally a poem, but was, in my opinion rightly so, submitted as a story in the Non-human category, I believe.

My mistake: it was in Sci-Fi & Fantasy.

Sarah's Visit
by microwave oeuvren ©

It's currently the 470th top rated story of the 688 stories in the category, with 3.92 average, which isn't anything to brag about, but it's not that bad either...

Anyway, it has been done before.

 

[champagne1982]

Champagne does have a point. A lot of stories and rambling prose are submitted as poetry simply because there is no word limit, not because it's poetry.

There are a lot of stories that could be placed in a number of different categories. They're not air-tight. Usually, unless incest or non-consent is involved, they will end up in the category the author chooses. Same thing happens here. Some elements of the story make it a poem (i.e. form), but it's still a story, and if the author thinks the characteristics that make it a story override those that make it a poem, so be it. [...]

Thankyou, Lauren, for the words that make my point.

I had never asked anyone what category they thought my poem would end up in, rather I asked them where they thought I should choose for it to go. I've managed to find the confidence to attempt its submission into the Romance Category for the Halloween Contest.

 

[rhodochrosite]

If a poem tells a story then it deserves to be posted on the story boards, providing it is long enough.
i enjoyed your poem greatly.
Thanks for writing it and thanks for sharing it.
(poetry fan)

 

[A7inchPhildo]

If it looks like a duck
If it walks like a duck
If it quacks like a duck
Ladies and gentle men it is a "Duck"!

It is a Romantic poem if that makes you feel better.
But it is still a poem.

 

[champagne1982]

Thanks. I know it's a poem, I defined it as a poem long ago. I have discovered that the rules only apply in one direction as far as poetry goes here on Lit. I can live with that. 'Nuff said?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Was it rejected?

 

[champagne1982]

Was it rejected?

Yes ma'am. I submitted it as a story to go into the non-human category and asked that it be entered in the Halloween contest. I got a lovely note back informing me that since it was a poem it wouldn't be fair to me if they included it in the stories submissions, since when people look for poetry, they don't look for it in the stories.. or words to that effect. All I have to say is "Pfffftttthpptt!"

 

[champagne1982]

That's the first time the double post thingy has ever happened to me! Freaky man ....

 

[Lauren Hynde]

That's just stoopid...

If it is a story, it shouldn't matter the layout. And it is just a matter of layout...

 

[Jenny _S]

Sorry Champ,
But I really think Lit needs a Catagory Titled "CRAP" so I can post my stories properly.