Offensive Poetry Board?

[Angeline]

The following was posted by Unregistered on the More Medicine thread

It's sad what this poetry forum has become. I understand now why so many good people have left here. These posts are inflammatory, disrespectful and not funny.

Go play in the Playground people. They are more your speed.

Dear Unregistered,

I have no desire to hurt anyone's feelings by being inflammatory and/or disrespectful (I can't help not funny). I don't believe anyone on this board, with the possible exception of a troll who fell into our space recently and didn't get the attention he wanted, is interested in that. It's true that threads and posts more suited to the General Board have appeared here. I'm not always happy about that, but it's not my place--or any individual's aside from Laurel--to define what should be on this board. Aside from siteowner mandates we do that as a group.

I have never seen anything personally offensive on this board. As a woman, mother, or American of Polish-Russian Jewish descent I have not. The More Medicine thread has jokes that poke fun in a silly way. Are they politically incorrect? Maybe, but you take political correctness to the extreme and you exist in a sterile environment where nothing can be said for fear of hurting somebody. I sure don't want to live that way.

Art, by the way, is inflammatory. We've had posts here on everything from rape to suicide, as well as love in its many forms. Would you rather everything here sound like a greeting card verse? Sometimes we really argue, too. Recently Senna Jawa really took me to task because he felt my work is not living up to its potential. I could have done without being called an idiot p Senna), but he was just venting because he wants me to improve. He had excellent suggestions. There is a core of contributors here that changes as people come and go, but we are a family and we put effort into supporting each other. Didn't anybody in your family ever get mad or say something they later regretted? Weren't you still a family?

And for you to suggest that the people who contribute here now are less whatever than those who left is an insult to some terrific writers. Cordelia, Homer Pinder, and xxxtabay all write wonderful poems and have recently kept this board moving with their comments and contributions. JUDO has been writing prodigiously lately and it's all so good. _Land has made so many contributions to this board and put a great deal of effort into tasks that no one else here wanted (like the new poems list). His challenge thread keeps us inspired. KatPurrs and WriterDom are back, and we are getting new posts about poetry all the time from folks who have not posted here before.

Change is good Unregistered. Say it with me. Oh and elitism sucks; you can say that, too. Next time come here with a poem and a name. Then you can be part of the solution.

Poets and poetry lovers, show your support for this board and the people on it by voting and posting a poem (your's or someone else's) and/or commenting on the direction you think this board should take.

 

[Angeline]

Here's a poem to keep the thread moving

Man Listening To Disc
by Billy Collins

This is not bad --
ambling along 44th Street
with Sonny Rollins for company,
his music flowing through the soft calipers
of these earphones,

as if he were right beside me
on this clear day in March,
the pavement sparkling with sunlight,
pigeons fluttering off the curb,
nodding over a profusion of bread crumbs.

In fact, I would say
my delight at being suffused
with phrases from his saxophone --
some like honey, some like vinegar --
is surpassed only by my gratitude

to Tommy Potter for taking the time
to join us on this breezy afternoon
with his most unwieldy bass
and to the esteemed Arthur Taylor
who is somehow managing to navigate

this crowd with his cumbersome drums.
And I bow deeply to Thelonious Monk
for figuring out a way
to motorize -- or whatever -- his huge piano
so he could be with us today.

This music is loud yet so confidential.
I cannot help feeling even more
like the center of the universe
than usual as I walk along to a rapid
little version of "The Way You Look Tonight,"

and all I can say to my fellow pedestrians,
to the woman in the white sweater,
the man in the tan raincoat and the heavy glasses,
who mistake themselves for the center of the universe --
all I can say is watch your step,

because the five of us, instruments and all,
are about to angle over
to the south side of the street
and then, in our own tightly knit way,
turn the corner at Sixth Avenue.

And if any of you are curious
about where this aggregation,
this whole battery-powered crew,
is headed, let us just say
that the real center of the universe,

the only true point of view,
is full of hope that he,
the hub of the cosmos
with his hair blown sideways,
will eventually make it all the way downtown.

 

[Senna Jawa]

I could have done without being called an idiot p Senna), [...]

Angeline, tell whoever told you, that I called you or anybody on this board an "idiot" that s/he is wrong, because I have never ever done such a thing.

Just in case I did, which I know that I didn't, let me assure you that in my humble opinion (I've got to be humble because most of the time I am wrong), none of you should be so harshly misclassified.

With great respect, infinitely surprised, and nervously smiling ,

 

[Angeline]

You humble me, Senna Jawa

because I should not have brought it up, my friend. But my point is that even as you were saying whatever you said, I understood that what you meant is "you can do better." That is encouragement.

 

[_Land]

It amazes me, and i was going to remain silent, thank you....
How much this board has changed....... is it not about poetry anymore....... HA poetry is about life, and if you live poetry as some of us do it is life is about poetry. I am less involved here then before! This is because I am more serious about writing then posting right now.......... Writers go through phases, sometimes they just need to let loose cut up become inspired for something new. others need space. We all act differently, all of us at times tire of cerain things here at Lit.
I dont post poems outside of this forum on Lit, because of the advertising anymore........ This forum is a group of Individuals that care about each other, ask how each other is doing through e-mail and PM when one is absent for very long........ WE ARE A SYMBIENT LIFE FORM (HEHEHEH couldnt resist sorry george Lucas)
we all help each other........ Expecting soemthing else then what is here is what is wrong.......... this is a place for release....... why else come to Literotica, this is open forum what others release may not always be ascetic to me, but thank God for the first amendment......... because some of what I post would get me killed by religious zealots for sure.......

[ end rant/]

 

[silken_dreammaid]

News from Judea - Bruce Dawe


(And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. MarkII:8,9 )

And went out to meet them about six hundred
officers of the law who had been told
by Herod himself 'There will be no more
political marches. Clear the streets
of all whose ideas are not those
of the governing party.' And they did
just that and the keepers of the public purse
looked down on the streets packed with chariots
and said 'It is good. Now there is law and order
in the land.' And one came to them then and said
'But know you not that some are even now assembling
in the public square and raising
their voices unto the rooftops?'
Thereupon the officers of the law went quickly thence
and confiscated their loudspeakers and began to harass

those who sat upon the steps saying
'This also is a public thoroughfare. Move on.'
And about that time came the Emperor Tiberius
to the province and he spoke unto the merchants
at a place called Surfers, which is on the sea-coast,
and he said 'Here is the rule of peace
in all the streets. You have done well.'
And in the days to come
the power of the officers of the law
was mightily increased to encompass
detention without charge and also incrimination by silence.
And many more were brought before the courts than heretofore
and Herod said again 'There will be peace in all my land....'
And the land became exceedingly quiet;
but this was not peace.





Please do not let such a quiet come over these boards.

silken

 

[WickedEve]

I haven't been around much lately, so I'm lost. What's offensive on the board? (Besides me and my obsession with Rowdy Ted)
We do mostly discuss poetry here and when a thread pops up that's not about poetry, one of us usually writes a poem and turns it into a poetry thread.
As far as good people leaving, I see a board that is still populated by good people that stay and good people who have recently joined. And some of the people that have left eventually come back when they are finished with new projects or dealing with life.

 

[Angeline]

What's offensive?

In my opinion, the post from Unregistered was about it and that was only because he or she insulted the writers who put so much into learning and sharing with others.

But you Eve come here to torment me with Rowdy What's 'is name. Holding him up and showing him to me. Then saying "He's mine."

 

[JUDO]

Re: Here's a poem to keep the thread moving

Man Listening To Disc
by Billy Collins

This is not bad --
ambling along 44th Street
with Sonny Rollins for company,
his music flowing through the soft calipers
of these earphones,

as if he were right beside me
on this clear day in March,
the pavement sparkling with sunlight,
pigeons fluttering off the curb,
nodding over a profusion of bread crumbs.

In fact, I would say
my delight at being suffused
with phrases from his saxophone --
some like honey, some like vinegar --
is surpassed only by my gratitude

to Tommy Potter for taking the time
to join us on this breezy afternoon
with his most unwieldy bass
and to the esteemed Arthur Taylor
who is somehow managing to navigate

this crowd with his cumbersome drums.
And I bow deeply to Thelonious Monk
for figuring out a way
to motorize -- or whatever -- his huge piano
so he could be with us today.

This music is loud yet so confidential.
I cannot help feeling even more
like the center of the universe
than usual as I walk along to a rapid
little version of "The Way You Look Tonight,"

and all I can say to my fellow pedestrians,
to the woman in the white sweater,
the man in the tan raincoat and the heavy glasses,
who mistake themselves for the center of the universe --
all I can say is watch your step,

because the five of us, instruments and all,
are about to angle over
to the south side of the street
and then, in our own tightly knit way,
turn the corner at Sixth Avenue.

And if any of you are curious
about where this aggregation,
this whole battery-powered crew,
is headed, let us just say
that the real center of the universe,

the only true point of view,
is full of hope that he,
the hub of the cosmos
with his hair blown sideways,
will eventually make it all the way downtown.

Reprise Angeline

How good is that?
How wonderful is that little
Block long journey we just got to take?
How many of us have done it?

Isolated in our own little world of pyrotechnics
And full of the day we are living?

Sonny Rollins is God
In one of the many forms,
So, no wonder the center of the Universe
Just passed the Taxi Stand on Sixth Avenue.

Baby, come back!
I feel the turbulence.



- Judo

 

[Angeline]

Hey JUDO Sweetie!

As if there aren't enough reasons to love Billy C's poetry: its humor, acccesibility, simple warmth that manages to convey a profound statement, the guy loves jazz, too! Here JUDO, for you: have another one--

Nightclub
by Billy Collins

You are so beautiful and I am a fool
to be in love with you
is a theme that keeps coming up
in songs and poems.
There seems to be no room for variation.
I have never heard anyone sing
I am so beautiful
and you are a fool to be in love with me,
even though this notion has surely
crossed the minds of women and men alike.
You are so beautiful, too bad you are a fool
is another one you don't hear.
Or, you are a fool to consider me beautiful.
That one you will never hear, guaranteed.

For no particular reason this afternoon
I am listening to Johnny Hartman
whose dark voice can curl around
the concepts on love, beauty, and foolishness
like no one else's can.
It feels like smoke curling up from a cigarette
someone left burning on a baby grand piano
around three o'clock in the morning;
smoke that billows up into the bright lights
while out there in the darkness
some of the beautiful fools have gathered
around little tables to listen,
some with their eyes closed,
others leaning forward into the music
as if it were holding them up,
or twirling the loose ice in a glass,
slipping by degrees into a rhythmic dream.

Yes, there is all this foolish beauty,
borne beyond midnight,
that has no desire to go home,
especially now when everyone in the room
is watching the large man with the tenor sax
that hangs from his neck like a golden fish.
He moves forward to the edge of the stage
and hands the instrument down to me
and nods that I should play.
So I put the mouthpiece to my lips
and blow into it with all my living breath.
We are all so foolish,
my long bebop solo begins by saying,
so damn foolish
we have become beautiful without even knowing it.

 

[KatPurrs]

I'm not offended with what is here at the board. I wish it were more about poetry as it used to be when daughter and UP were here but I feel the trend is getting back to the good ole days. Or maybe I'm just a blind optimist.

What I AM offended by are the ads. I no longer post poems here because I am, quite frankly, embarrassed by fists being shoved into different orifices when I am trying to read a sexy, sensitive poem. I left for a while for that reason. Now, I just post stuff here. I don't know if Laurel and Manu like that though. I remember something about them wanting a poem to be submitted before it appeared here. Correct me if I'm wrong. But it is too bad if that is the protocol because it's helpful to workshop a poem before submitting it anywhere. I just choose to not submit in a place where I would squirm to refer people outside of Lit to read it.

I have always wondered why there couldn't be ads that weren't so offensive. Like for condoms, lingerie, Adult Toy Chest type sites, ya know???

Jumping off soap box and high-tailing it!!!

Kat~

p.s. Cool....I'm a Lit Guru!

 

[WickedEve]

kat

When I stay at my mom's and check out the poems and board here, I have to scroll down quickly incase someone walks in and sees the fisting at the top of the screen. lol I have grown to hate that fist pounding hussy! But that's how they've chosen to make money and that's one reason we have a board here... sure there may be other ways without using the fastest fist in the land...

 

[KatPurrs]

Eve,

I understand the women-getting-fisted ads are the bread and butter of Lit. They just irritate the hell out of me. Why don't they show some guy taking a fist up the ass? Why don't they show two men fucking? Why not show women pissing in men's faces? Aren't you sick of cum shots? Women with women? Fair is fair. Arrgggh! I'm on the soap box again...I know..if I can't take the heat, stay the hell outta the kitchen.

I also know what you mean....I wouldn't let my friends or family in the room to see my poems until I had it all scrolled down to a decent level.

Ahhh, sometimes I think I should just get off the net and stay off.
I'm in a mood tonight....sorry.

Kat~

 

[Angeline]

Damn Ads!

KatPurrs said

I understand the women-getting-fisted ads are the bread and butter of Lit. They just irritate the hell out of me. Why don't they show some guy taking a fist up the ass? Why don't they show two men fucking? Why not show women pissing in men's faces?

I gotta say I don't want to see any of these, lol. Here's a poem I posted a while back. Seems like a good time to share it.


Sista Fista
by Angeline ©


Hey Sista Fista?

take out that fist
we readin poems here
we gettin pissed

Go wash that hand
try to understand
who we are

Poets dammit!
we try to make art
talk truth
show beauty

Now who wants that
marred by you

in the
background

writhing

rammajammin
your booty?

 

[KatPurrs]

LOL Angeline

Thanks, I needed that....I love it!

Kat

 

[Senna Jawa]

because I should not have brought it up, my friend.

I was just teasing you, Angeline Don't worry at all.

But my point is that even as you were saying whatever you said, I understood that what you meant is "you can do better." That is encouragement.

When I write, my goal is constructive. Occasionally I fool a bit.

        you'll learn highways and byways
        but not my ways

   

Best regards,

 

[Cordelia]

Post Anxiety

I'm not offended with what is here at the board. I wish it were more about poetry as it used to be when daughter and UP were here but I feel the trend is getting back to the good ole days. Or maybe I'm just a blind optimist.

I am not speaking for all us newbies, but I feel rather isolated when I keep hearing about the "good ole days." I keep my comments to a minimum because it's nerve-wracking enough just to let one's poetry out, let alone to a group that all seems to know each other. Maybe I am just speaking as the new kid (13 different schools by the time I graduated), but it's a scary board out there and not always warm.

Having had my little rant, I must also say I appreciate the constructive picking apart poetry receives here. That is what I love to read about other's poetry, and love to get on my poems, and slowly learn to do myself for others.

Thanks for letting me let off a little steam.


Cordelia

 

[Senna Jawa]

Re: Post Anxiety

[...] I feel rather isolated when I keep hearing about the "good ole days." [...]
Cordelia

Cordelia, let the good ol' folks have their sentiments. It's harmless enough.

Regards,

 

[WickedEve]

Ahhhh, the good ol' days.

Yes, when UP and daughter were here it was a different board. The board needs strong leaders to keep it going. I think Angeline and a few others are strong leaders, and that we now have a new board that's different but very good in its own way.

Maybe a year from now we'll look back and say, "Ah, the good ol' days when Senna was here." lol

 

[darkmaas]

Now I don’t post a lot and I certainly don’t claim to be an accomplished poet <blushing uncontrollably> but I come here often because it is a relatively civilized community of interesting people (and even the odd fish). So please allow me to add my two cents worth (3 cents Canadian).

It’s human nature for communities to evolve but for some reason they only survive if a maddeningly large investment in “idle chatter” is made. If one looks at any group of people, say a workplace or a committee, and measures the time spent transferring useful information and compares it with conversation about the weather, who’s sleeping with who, the kids teeth, the hottie in the next cubicle....one finds that “useful conversation” rarely exceeds 10% of total conversation except over very short periods.

I think that I can safely state that the price of “community” is lots of “idle (and even offensive) chat”. This board is no exception and I’ll leave it to Senna Jawa to provide the statistics. I strongly believe that any well intentioned attempt to limit the conversation to purely poetic issues would result in the collapse of the community. The board would devolve into one or maybe two lonely poetic masturbators, not because the poetry or the poets are boring but because the real reason for the board is to allow for a community to evolve that shares a core poetic value.

It’s not hard to avoid the idle chatter if it is really annoying. (For instance a reference to lava lamps is an instant give-away that it is only Xtaabay and me trying to make the world a safer better place, and I for one welcome members to pass on by).

Sometimes though really annoying things happen (like Vlad the Inhaler). Consider him the price of admission and smile smugly.

 

[darkmaas]

Another thought and then I'll go away again. Regarding the unsavoury banners that frame our otherwise uplifting offerings, consider this:

Think of this board as an exquisite restaurant in a very shabby part of town. Because the chef is so damned good you bring your friends but you warn them about the brothel upstairs. You remain happy in the knowledge that the perfect gastronomic oasis will never be so crowded that you can't get a good table.

Now imagine this board if poets everywhere realised that non-erotic poetry was available and the literary merits of same were discussed. This place would be awash in badly rhyming couplets, sodden haiku...(I feel a flame coming from the evil nun about gross imagery spoiling her turkey soup).

I'm going away before I get into trouble.

 

[Angeline]

Dear darkmaas

Please don't go away! Your thoughtful opinion is exactly the kind of participation we need here. I agree with you that dealing with a troll now and again is a reletively small price to pay for the community and growth as a writer that we (at least I) get from being here. (And post a poem if you feel like it--I try to be objective and sweet in my reviews--and have you seen some of the schmutz I put up here? Washing machines? I must be nuts.)

 

[Rybka]

AN "ODD" FISH ???

Now I don’t post a lot and I certainly don’t claim to be an accomplished poet <blushing uncontrollably> but I come here often because it is a relatively civilized community of interesting people (and even the odd fish). So please allow me to add my two cents worth (3 cents Canadian).

An Odd Fish's Thoughts


excruciatingly extruding extremities
heaving humps
lubricous lumps
percolating protuberances

Roiling ribbons rise
saponaceous cysts slowly sink
unctuousness undulates upward
wambling waves wax and wane

a darkmaas
globulates
in Xtaabay's
lava lamp



Regards,                       Rybka

 

[Angeline]

Rybka?

An Odd Fish's Thoughts


excruciatingly extruding extremities
heaving humps
lubricous lumps
percolating protuberances

Roiling ribbons rise
saponaceous cysts slowly sink
unctuousness undulates upward
wambling waves wax and wane

a darkmaas
globulates
in Xtaabay's
lava lamp


You're one sick fishie. lol

 

[Star At Sunrise]

interesting thread

My numbers of postings make me look like a semi-newbie, but I lurk these boards a lot without posting a reply. I find there is almost always thought provoking conversations on message boards, and this one has its own unique flavor.

I was about to vote "totally offensive" but then I hesitated. Wait... I'm against censorship... hmmm...

Then I realized if I could honestly vote both a 5 and a 1 on this thread, I could vote for any of the choices in between too. Hmmm... my thoughts are provoked.

But Darkmaas's "idle chatter" post opened my eyes. It's very true that society is built on these idle chatter moments, it lets us get to know each other on other levels, and then feel freer to open up in other ways too; maybe being more honest or adjusting your criticism to a particular person because you're familiar with their personality and previous work.

So, who knows... sometimes reading posts that look more like transcribed chat is a little off putting, but the posts that are on topic and have genuine insight balance it out, I think.