Return of the H's 1999-2009

[Epmd607]

We're not the lazy ones, there are hundreds of people reading our poems and not voting. How irritating is it to have 1000 views and 10 votes? Does that mean only ten people read the whole poem? Anyway, I'm asking anyone that reads this to go find five poems that deserve fives and vote for them, past or present. Then return here and mention one of the poems. Only five, shouldn't take more than twenty minutes(go through the poets you already know if you want and find that missing H gem.) There are dozens of us who vote anyway, so we should be able to return a couple of H's through shear(?) will.

Also, somehow my poem is at the top of that absurd voting list, could someone please knock it down? You can give it a one but it'd be nicer if you didn't.

Also, also, I'm going to disappear again from the board, mostly because I don't think I've written better in the last few months, whereas my interests here have been arguing like this is a scifi messageboard from the 90's. Hopefully, in a year or two those less desirables will have gone and my favorites from the past will still be around. I'll still read your poems, because I do like poems. Unmasked Poet, I'm sorry if I had any part in your getting sent back underground.

 

[Senna Jawa]

We're not the lazy ones,

Of course not!

there are hundreds of people reading our poems and not voting. How irritating is it to have 1000 views and 10 votes?

Ten votes?! That's a lot. Hardly any of mine has that many (perhaps 2 out of over 300), while almost all of them have way more than a 1000 views (maybe all--it's been a long time since I looked).

Almost all my poems had a perfect 5.00 average at one time or another, and then some of them would drop even to 1.00, etc. The funny Literotica algorithm is removing votes in a mysterious way , and that's one more reason for so few votes on the record. At one time I had poems with perfect 5.00 average and about 10 votes but the number of votes quickly dropped down. Other authors have much better )) stats than me. At this time I have just one poem with six 5s and two poems with four 5s, and a bunch with fewer - as I said, others have much more impressive ratings. I used to record those stats but they are too meaningless to spend time of them, even with my sympathy for trivia & stats.

Anyway, I'm asking anyone that reads this to go find five poems that deserve fives and vote for them, past or present.

Yes!!! Forward!!!!! Attack!!! Win!!!!!(Hm, how about writing decent poems and not getting overly excited by paraphernalia?).

Then return here and mention one of the poems.

Yes, Sir! Right, Sir! Promptly, Sir!

Only five, shouldn't take more than twenty minutes(go through the poets you already know if you want and find that missing H gem.) There are dozens of us who vote anyway, so we should be able to return a couple of H's through shear(?) will.

I don't have 20 minutes to waste like this. But you have my permission to go from one public library to another, and to vote for poems any way you want to. You may satisfy your craving and create H-s for yourself to your heart desire. You may also involve all your aunts, uncles, nieces, friends, ... Yes, go for it, don't let the system to pull you down, to push you down on your knees.

Also, somehow my poem is at the top of that absurd voting list, could someone please knock it down? You can give it a one but it'd be nicer if you didn't.

Actually, giving it 1 would be more efficient. Why don't you provide the link? You can give it a bunch of 1s yourself too--see above.

Also, also, I'm going to disappear again from the board, mostly because I don't think I've written better in the last few months

You're sooo hard on yourself! Such high standards, unbelievable!

Unmasked Poet, I'm sorry if I had any part in your getting sent back underground.

You're giving yourself way too much credit. See you in two years, when you learn how to write poems and show up here again. Enjoy,

 

[bflagsst]

Also, also, I'm going to disappear again from the board, mostly because I don't think I've written better in the last few months, whereas my interests here have been arguing like this is a scifi messageboard from the 90's. Hopefully, in a year or two those less desirables will have gone and my favorites from the past will still be around. I'll still read your poems, because I do like poems. Unmasked Poet, I'm sorry if I had any part in your getting sent back underground.

Stephen, maybe you're just being petty and silly. I don't believe the H program means anything either. It's fitting that Senna responded, probably just like you would of. You know, I hope you're just being a drama queen. Maybe Senna and alot of these poets haven't read any of your poems. He wrote 300, I'll post three of yours and we can make it a game, see if anyone thinks they've written something better. Toe to toe subjective survivor so to speak:

(Mother and the Handsome Flowers)

Each hue I flower,
against the bright red berry
aghast the white-light hue,

but for you, and only you,
and your sea-pale iris,
and my love anew;

By siris, and the seeds chattering,
I plead one more soft kiss, tenderly
a smatter across your bed.


(Father and a Bough of Apples)

Against the gamut of soft girl sounds,
and the embrace of a crooked bough,
I reform my memory in its thickets,
to dapple your intricate passage thru,
to wind you home, 'til no cricket lie
along the path from your bough to apple.

--
In the skirt of your everyday,
I've found myself mumbling,
aberrant quips, and slips
between the breaks and bones
of our warm and homely coze,
to where we may, as you say:
'White-hair and grey the day away.'


Erotic poem, but not Joycean or in a letter to Nora

Your lips are dry
and the goods are overboard
playing lewdly,
panting and poured between
two dark places,
you're flush and biting
and sweetly burning,
until you've garbled
with your secret talk
and teeming.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

The subject of voting and the letters that appear (and disappear) in various colours comes up regularly. I removed the voting option some time ago because I don't care about it. Why can't we all just write for the love of it, accept any comments and criticism that are offered and try to improve? If I had my way the votes would be disallowed.

It would be a shame to lose you, Epmd607, but you follow many others who left in a huff because of the voting or lack thereof.

Keep writing and come back soon.

 

[champagne1982]

I don't have voting turned on except in my survivor poems. To me, the read's enough and if you feel so moved as to comment, even better. Don't get all cranked about votes, it's not like you get paid anything for them (Well, maybe, one poem a month or an annual winner or something. The money won't pay to publish a chap book so it's really not going to move your career as a poet ahead through winning on Literotica.)

Hang loose.

p.s. Nice poems.

 

[bflagsst]

I don't have voting turned on except in my survivor poems. To me, the read's enough and if you feel so moved as to comment, even better. Don't get all cranked about votes, it's not like you get paid anything for them (Well, maybe, one poem a month or an annual winner or something. The money won't pay to publish a chap book so it's really not going to move your career as a poet ahead through winning on Literotica.)

Hang loose.

p.s. Nice poems.

I never thought you could turn off the voting for some reason, because it's always on when you submit. But thanks for the heads up, I just turned them off so I won't get bummed when someone decides to hit me up with a row of ones.

Senna, I forgot to ask before, do you still submit poems? Last I checked the latest one said something like '06, and alot of them have early 90's dates in them. You still writing? It would seem strange that you can't spend twenty minutes reading poetry on a poetry website that you seem to spend some time on.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I wonder if I am an undesirable and if so does it do wonders for my street cred?

 

[Angeline]

Hey Epmd, we all go through what you're feeling now. I have zero faith in the voting system. It has never worked right and on top of all its nutty quirks, you have people here who'll one-bomb a poem and not blink an eye over it. Also, when you consider that the only criterion for having a poem accepted is submitting it well you're not exactly among New Yorker level writers, you know? Otoh, the support and feedback we give each other on this forum makes up for the crappy voting system, the many mediocre (or worse) poems one must wade through to find a gem, and the various personal fits and starts of a bunch of crazy poets congregating.

Take some time off, but come back. Your poetry and your insights are appreciated here. I appreciate them, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

And don't listen to Senna's snotty comments. He does that to everyone, but I just ignore it and learn the good stuff from him.

 

[Angeline]

I wonder if I am an undesirable and if so does it do wonders for my street cred?

No, you are desirable and it does wonders for your street cred.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Well thats nice to know thankyou very much lol I havent written anything of note for days written yes but that's a different thing entirely. I won something or other last year and didn't even know lol

 

[Senna Jawa]

Maybe Senna [...] haven't read any of your poems.

Very true!

He wrote 300 [...]

Posted (wrote more than that).

I'll post three of yours

They're nice.

and we can make it a game, see if anyone thinks they've written something better.

As nice as they are you need to choose much stronger samples to make it a game. Anyway, such a game will lead nowhere. You'll claim at the end that it's all in the eye of beholder. I need to run now. Best regards,

Senna Jawa​

 

[Angeline]

Well thats nice to know thankyou very much lol I havent written anything of note for days written yes but that's a different thing entirely. I won something or other last year and didn't even know lol

I owe Annaswirls a big thank you. Her cento thread got me off my museless butt, and I just finished my second one. Now I have to figure out which form to do next.

I hope you win again this year. You've written some wonderful poems over the past year.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Thankyou kind lady but my vote would go for Anna's back yard poem

 

[bflagsst]

Very true!

Posted (wrote more than that).


They're nice.

As nice as they are you need to choose much stronger samples to make it a game. Anyway, such a game will lead nowhere. You'll claim at the end that it's all in the eye of beholder. I need to run now. Best regards,

Senna Jawa​

I didn't think so, but that's also why I wrote 'subjective' and didn't mention posting them as if it was a contest. It's an introspective exercise, if I were Senna Jawa I'd read my own poems and place myself against someone whom I've never read before. I often place my own work against any new poet I read. The curious case of Senna Jawa. My question was what happened to your submissions after 2006? And why you can't read poems for twenty minutes but can answer posts on a message board about reading poems? I've no problem defending my friend's literotica reputation. Do you, Senna, have someone willing to defend yours?

Senna, I've read about your problems with the chess community and your unfinished opus "Art of Agreeing". Maybe you should stick to non-Euclidean spaces.

 

[Angeline]

I didn't think so, but that's also why I wrote 'subjective' and didn't mention posting them as if it was a contest. It's an introspective exercise, if I were Senna Jawa I'd read my own poems and place myself against someone whom I've never read before. I often place my own work against any new poet I read. The curious case of Senna Jawa. My question was what happened to your submissions after 2006? And why you can't read poems for twenty minutes but can answer posts on a message board about reading poems? I've no problem defending my friend's literotica reputation. Do you, Senna, have someone willing to defend yours?

Senna is an excellent poet, just my opinion of course. He's sort of an acquired taste, but then some good poets are.

But why feel competetive at all? I read others here and I appreciate the poems and I learn from them what I can, but I never feel I need to defend my poetry against someone else's. I don't even compare, really. My standard is the best that I can be. I know what I think are my best poems, and I tend to measure what I write in comparison to them.

I wonder how others see this. Do other people compare their poetry against other poets here or have other ways of measuring the quality of their writing?

 

[bflagsst]

Senna is an excellent poet, just my opinion of course. He's sort of an acquired taste, but then some good poets are.

But why feel competetive at all? I read others here and I appreciate the poems and I learn from them what I can, but I never feel I need to defend my poetry against someone else's. I don't even compare, really. My standard is the best that I can be. I know what I think are my best poems, and I tend to measure what I write in comparison to them.

I wonder how others see this. Do other people compare their poetry against other poets here or have other ways of measuring the quality of their writing?

DEAR fellow-artist, why so free
With every sort of company,
With every Jack and Jill?
Choose your companions from the best;
Who draws a bucket with the rest
Soon topples down the hill.
You may, that mirror for a school,
Be passionate, not bountiful
As common beauties may,
Who were not born to keep in trim
With old Ezekiel's cherubim
But those of Beauvarlet.
I know what wages beauty gives,
How hard a life her servant lives,
Yet praise the winters gone:
There is not a fool can call me friend,
And I may dine at journey's end
With Landor and with Donne.


Cult of yeats all the way. This poem is difficult for me. Because I think he's comparing himself to Donne and placing himself in conflict with not only all his contemporaries, but Donne himself.

 

[Senna Jawa]

disappointment

if I were Senna Jawa

You're not Senna Jawa.

I often [etc.]

So, we all should be like you(?). Sorry for not living up to your expectations. But, but... wouldn't it be extremely boring if we were all like you? (while it'd be utmost interesting if we were all like me ).

My question was what happened to your submissions after 2006?

It has happened earlier, gradually. It's mainly the biological clock. I am writing poetry for the past 50 years. That's the main half of the answer. The other half is that I am sorry that I ever got into poetry. I am disappointed with the people active in poetry, and it takes away my motivation to write poems or about poetry. You may have your views, you may judge it as wrong or right, or even true or false, but that's how it is. (My attempt at 30 in 30 was a mild but characteristic illustration of the problem). There are very few people with which I can talk about poetry meaningfully--these days perhaps only one (and, potentially, perhaps still another one).

And why you can't read poems for twenty minutes but can answer posts on a message board about reading poems?

I gave you a chance to rethink your own shallow interpretation of what I have written. Your interpretation has nothing to do with my words, except for abusing them for an ad hoc, silly, meaningless attack.

I've no problem defending my friend's Literotica reputation.

Indeed, leave it alone, worry about yourself.

Do you, Senna, have someone willing to defend yours?

Am I under attack? I don't care. I know what poetry is. To me it's not a shambo-mambo like to the great majority of others. But you're welcome to your opinion.

Senna, I've read about your problems with the chess community

You're not nice. There are no "my problems", you're a demagog. And this is not a forum for bringing such topics here in the first place. Your methods are those of secret police in authoritarian countries.

and your unfinished opus "Art of Agreeing". Maybe you should stick to non-Euclidean spaces.

May be you should stick your opinion you know where. It's amazing how aggressive you are toward me. You bring here everything, like this was not a poetic board, devoted to poetry, but a free for all. I don't even know who you are, and you come here anonymously, cowardly, so unfair, with this ugly, dirty muddling. Now what(?), should I start to dig all kind of things about you, and present them falsely in your lowly, twisted style? Don't worry, I don't do such things. I don't spy on people. I am interested in real things, not in demagogy, etc.

It's a pity, because I like your poems (you're the one brought to our attention here by Anna, right?). Thus I am sad that you have no character, no class.

Please, avoid further personal attacks on me (or you'll end up on my "ignore list"; sure, it's not a big deal).

 

[Senna Jawa]

(you're the one brought to our attention here by Anna, right?).

By Eve.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Wow. Yeah I am lucky if I get 5 votes on anything. Most of my poems have 2 maybe. I just figured a person had to schmooze a lot more than I have time for to get people to vote or comment or whatever.

 

[Safe_Bet]

You want votes? No prob, dude. Post a story in one of the Lit contests and you'll get scads of votes for ALL of your stories AND poems. 'Course they will be one bombs and if you are lucky they will get wiped out by Manu's magic, but by god you'll get your votes...

Sorry, got a little tongue in cheek there (but I hope you caught my drift). For me, one vote from somebody whom I hold in high esteem (like a favorite and/or skilled poet) is worth a hundred votes from the average Lit reader (no offense guys, but most of ya ain't here for the poetry anyway). So bottom line = it's all about the quality cuz you just aren't going to get the quantity (nor should you want it, IMHO). Know what I mean jellybean?

P.S. Senna, you are cracking me up tonight.

 

[bflagsst]

I didn't start this thread, but for me it exists because Senna exists. I'd prefer if you put me on ignore and you never read anything of mine. Doesn't it hurt when someone says things that they know nothing about? I don't know that I'm here anonymously, I didn't quite post my birth name on the front of my profile, but you can look me up with the information provided. If that's not helpful, my name's Joseph Sullivan, I was born in 1984 in Johnson City, NY. The only difference between you and stephen is he actually read the work of the people he criticized.

In an interesting turn of events I actually learned what began this silly little thread and even sillier departure. I was even privy to the series of private messages. I wouldn't say Safe Bet was the reason why he left, but it's very interesting how she returns to the scene. Was there some sort of lovers quarrel? Because it all seems too surreal, the temper tantrums of a text based community. I was brought here by epmd and now it's like I've been dragged back out by him. Darkmaas was right, how would anyone know that messianic beings have came or left without announcements?

 

[Senna Jawa]

bye-bye

I didn't start this thread, but for me it exists because Senna exists.

And what "for me" is supposed to mean here? This thread exists because Epmd607 has started it.

I'd prefer if you put me on ignore and you never read anything of mine.

Sure. Right after this post. (I was still hoping that you will come to senses and apologize for your post; never mind, it's too late).

The only difference between you and stephen is he actually read the work of the people he criticized.

I don't know stephen so I don't know. However, according to you, there is not a single difference between stephen and me, what a miracle!!! Indeed, I never criticize any poems which I didn't read first (it's only natural). Would it hurt you, if you actually read what others write before putting your own silly words or impressions into their mouth? Try with my posts in this thread for an initial exercise in concentration and comprehension. (I have no idea why I am blinding you; was there a frustrating to you past contact outside this board? Never mind, it's not important).

I am not interested in any behind the scene happenings, I don't know why you like to drag in or make up such things about several participants here. It's not healthy.

Well, enjoy this board, I won't be in your way anymore, or at least I will not be aware of your existence. What has happened is a pity but then this world is but chaos.

 

[chtia]

nice to read your psost

 

[darkmaas]

Senna, I've read about your problems with the chess community and your unfinished opus "Art of Agreeing". Maybe you should stick to non-Euclidean spaces.

Senna and I rarely agree and it causes me great discomfort to be defending him, but what you wrote above seems to me to have crossed a line. It has nothing to do with poetry or the discussion at hand, nor does it say anything revealing about Senna's character. It merely implies "problems" that if we knew what they were ...

It's shallow character assassination and you should offer him an apology. He won't hear it but the rest of us might and it will be good for your soul.


::

 

[champagne1982]

Thanks for your aadult voice d'maas. Sometimes, the tone and tenor of a discussion turns from considered argument to passive aggressive phrasing; that's when the participants need to either ignore each other (as Senna has) or more importantly own the offense and once it's admitted, apologize.

I haven't been reading much poetry, or writing it either. My problem but I still don't vote unless I comment and I don't comment unless I'm strongly moved to when I am reading; reviewing is a totally different obligation, reading should be and remain a pleasure. What the writer (yes both prose and poetry) does with that comment and vote is up to them. As far as I know the account holder can delete my comment but my vote still remains registered against the piece, only the site management can delete my vote.

So, sorry if I won't go off and read and vote since, really, I don't feel like it.