Seriously...

[twelveoone]

As writers you have one chance at something close to immortality, and that is...how?

If you could give your teeth for any Literotica writer (past or present) to help you achieve that who would it be? Would it be a success like Mr. Carrington (he must be doing something right), someone like Senna Jawa who has written very intelligently on poetry. Someone like Angeline, a fine writer and who I think mentioned, edits. Tzara who is almost as much of a fucking genius as I am, and a better spell checker. (I'm ignoring that sell my vote for charity crapola, but I did give $5 to a drunk, 'cause he was honest)

Would you look for someone with a similar style, someone with a contrasting style?
Broad based or narrow focused?

In my case it's a toss up, either: foehn or jthserra, they are what I am not , conservative, rule based. They would be excellent counter balances to my worst excesses, (and we all have them) but broad based enough to see where I am going with something.

Now lest you think I am an average run of the mill mouth runner, a Mr. Carrington once posted a poem about Dresden here (not for the faint hearted thread) buy his book (the first one) and read what he changed.

 

[DeepAsleep]

If I could choose to be reined in by any one person here, who would it be? I don't think I'd pick one person... But I'm used to editing as a community thing, and not a focused, one-person-brutalizes me thing, so:

If it had to be one person, I'd pick jd4george.

 

[Tathagata]

If I could choose to be reined in by any one person here, who would it be? I don't think I'd pick one person... But I'm used to editing as a community thing, and not a focused, one-person-brutalizes me thing, so:

If it had to be one person, I'd pick jd4george.

I'd agree
I really liked his stuff alot
he had a little bit of everything in his style

 

[DeepAsleep]

I'd agree
I really liked his stuff alot
he had a little bit of everything in his style

he and I have continued talking, every so often. I shoot him emails and he replies in a sort of laughing, "Not only have I been to prison, I've lived a helluva lot longer than you" gentle sort of advisory tone that I find palatable - I like my condescension tongue in cheek, and that's how he gives it to me.

Stellar dude, good poet, etc.

 

[Tathagata]

he and I have continued talking, every so often. I shoot him emails and he replies in a sort of laughing, "Not only have I been to prison, I've lived a helluva lot longer than you" gentle sort of advisory tone that I find palatable - I like my condescension tongue in cheek, and that's how he gives it to me.

Stellar dude, good poet, etc.

please pass on my regards next time
he is a very cool , very wise man

 

[Angeline]

Hard to say because there are many people here whose advice has really helped me grow as a writer. smithpeter and Senna Jawa both got me to think about writing outside my comfort zone, but I guess I'd say Lauren Hynde or darkmaas, both of whom really understand my poetry and push me.

 

[Tathagata]

Hard to say because there are many people here whose advice has really helped me grow as a writer. smithpeter and Senna Jawa both got me to think about writing outside my comfort zone, but I guess I'd say Lauren Hynde or darkmaas, both of whom really understand my poetry and push me.

I'd push you...but I think EE got that base covered


senna does make me think..but his style is too...far away from me

 

[Angeline]

I'd push you...but I think EE got that base covered


senna does make me think..but his style is too...far away from me

Yeah well eagleyez sees me through rose-colored specs. He loves me so he thinks everything I write is wonderful. He knows poetry and can speak very intelligently about literature but he has a blind spot when it comes to my writing.

You inspire me. Our backgrounds are so similar that I read what you write about your childhood and it immediately spins me into memories that get me writing. That's one of the reasons I follow you around. You're good for my muse.

 

[Tathagata]

Yeah well eagleyez sees me through rose-colored specs. He loves me so he thinks everything I write is wonderful. He knows poetry and can speak very intelligently about literature but he has a blind spot when it comes to my writing.

You inspire me. Our backgrounds are so similar that I read what you write about your childhood and it immediately spins me into memories that get me writing. That's one of the reasons I follow you around. You're good for my muse.

thats what love does sweetie
you see everything the beloved does as pure...because you love the whole package
it's not a blind spot...just the opposite, it's non judgmental
it's a wonderful thing

I may paraphrase Ram Dass " I'm a Hin-jew"

we could have grown up on the same block
if only in the way we reacted and saw it

I still say your amante poems, for me, capture the timelessness of a lover who understands that all is fleeting, and yet willingly succumbs for the pure joy of being in love.

someday those will be read by many more people
i believe that

 

[Angeline]

thats what love does sweetie
you see everything the beloved does as pure...because you love the whole package
it's not a blind spot...just the opposite, it's non judgmental
it's a wonderful thing

I may paraphrase Ram Dass " I'm a Hin-jew"

we could have grown up on the same block
if only in the way we reacted and saw it

I still say your amante poems, for me, capture the timelessness of a lover who understands that all is fleeting, and yet willingly succumbs for the pure joy of being in love.

someday those will be read by many more people
i believe that

Thank you.

I hope you're right about the Amante poems. I feel the same way about your Mad Poet series. It deserves a wide, wide audience. Of course, someone will have to convince Mr. Ex that I'm not getting paid for them. He labors under the illusion that I'm getting rich from poetry. Which would make me laugh if he didn't otherwise so totally irritate me.

 

[Tathagata]

Thank you.

I hope you're right about the Amante poems. I feel the same way about your Mad Poet series. It deserves a wide, wide audience. Of course, someone will have to convince Mr. Ex that I'm not getting paid for them. He labors under the illusion that I'm getting rich from poetry. Which would make me laugh if he didn't otherwise so totally irritate me.

I'll never get rich from poetry, but it will atleast leave a diary of sorts for the grandchildren which, in my opinion, is rich enough.
that's about all the " immortality" I crave

i could have written some great Mad Poet stuff back in the day...but it wouldn't have had the advantage of age, and trauma, and understanding of it all that i have now.

they also need some serious rewrite/ editing
someday I'll get to it

perhaps
: D

 

[Tzara]

As writers you have one chance at something close to immortality, and that is...how?

I sincerely hope to have more than one chance at something close to immorality.




It's tough, though. I don't seem to have much talent for it.

 

[Tathagata]

I sincerely hope to have more than one chance at something close to immorality.




It's tough, though. I don't seem to have much talent for it.

I think anything that come close to being a truth, or something that speaks to the heart of people, is what becomes immortal
whether that is talent, or simply the absence of ego is debatable


i think you have a pretty good shot

keep in mind, immortal doesn't always mean " popular"
If one of your poems is handed down, quoted, by say 3 or 4 people, for a few generations
you're immortalized

that ain't a bad deal

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Oh pooh! You mean I'm not immortal?

 

[Tathagata]

Oh pooh! You mean I'm not immortal?

you're immortal as long as I'm alive

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

you're immortal as long as I'm alive

I'll worship at your feet.

 

[Tathagata]

I'll worship at your feet.

you'll sit up with me at a table and tell me all about yourself....then we'll discuss who'll be on their knees

 

[Angeline]

you'll sit up with me at a table and tell me all about yourself....then we'll discuss who'll be on their knees

I believe that's called a win-win situation.

 

[champagne1982]

I don't know. You all seem to keep my ass kicked and my tongue in check... often . Sometimes I let it fall out of my cheek and get serious. I've found my biggest help on the lit forum, has come from the editorial poets. Those of you who give good crit are invaluable. Perhaps some success will come from writing poems, but somehow, I doubt immortality will find me.

 

[Angeline]

I don't know. You all seem to keep my ass kicked and my tongue in check... often . Sometimes I let it fall out of my cheek and get serious. I've found my biggest help on the lit forum, has come from the editorial poets. Those of you who give good crit are invaluable. Perhaps some success will come from writing poems, but somehow, I doubt immortality will find me.

I'm not so sure. Not to be morbid, but think about the fact that although smithpeter has been gone three years, many of us are still reading and enjoying his poems. And I have no doubt the same will be true of Rybka's work as time passes. Maybe they'd both raise an eyebrow at the thought of immortality being reduced to poems at this site, but unquestionably their respective spirits live on in the poems--not to mention their influence on the poets.

 

[Liar]

Fing is, I have no ambition to find immortality through writing.

I have the ambition to use writing as one of many means to find out things about language. And then I'll tell people what I found out (and maybe write about it) and become immortal.

But hockay, whose brains would I pick to become the best poet I can be?

I have two candidates, for entirely different reasons.

Lauren, to learn the precise control she exerts over her words, her style, her contextual framework for each and every poem. Something that I, to say the least, lack.

Vampiredust, for his uncanny ability to consistently find a fresh topos, an unexploreed perspective from which to view the world around him. His output in the passion thread and other places here is not always polished and presented in an optimal way, but the ideas are always of that kind that makes me go "Huh. Wow. Interresting. I didn't know you could see it that way, but now that I have, it makes perfect sense." That, is a poet's eye.

 

[Tzara]

I did not answer the question seriously before, which is probably kinda bad, as the topic is "Seriously..." but I could not name a poet. A single poet. I could not name even, say, ten poets. I could maybe name individual poems, if I could remember them, but that's a different thing.

I do not aspire to (ha ha ha ha) immortality. I just write because it's fun. My poems here are like crossword puzzles with flirting.

I like words. I like to play around with them. If I can craft something that works, even a teeny tiny bit, as "art?" Well, yeah. I'd like be all over that. But, you know, that is hard. I sometimes try, but more often than not, I just wingle. <-- Technical term for slovenly word play and nonsense.

The original question, though, assuming I have got it right, is interesting. I would say that your goal as writer is to learn both what your subject(s) is (are) and to learn how to express it (them). You are learning about what is important/essential to you. So how the hell would someone else enter into that? Anyone else? I'm confused about that.

Case in point, fer me. Take annaswirls. (I'd love to take annaswirls, but that is, of course, banterish non-comment.) I love her poems. Ms. Anna does something very different from me in her writing. She, like, bleeds authenticity and emotion. What her poems are about, I think. Her reaction to things and life and stuff. What, I think, makes her poems good, or at least strongly contributes to it. (She does do that metaphor thing, too, and well.)

But, y'know, that won't work for me. I am not confessional guy. However much I admire and react to that style, were I to try and do it, I would suck. It is just not me.

Trust me. I tried it already in High School, and the reviews were bad. My reviews of my own work were bad. That's just a non-starter.

What I need to learn is how to be more me, but with the technical chops to understand how to do that and communicate to whatever audience may or might find that vaguely interesting at the same time. I don't think the best course is for me to be emulating other Lit people. Or, for that matter, for me to be emulating any of the "Great Poets" (yeah, yeah, I would fucking love to be Auden (well, except for the homosexual thing (whoops, that (fucking) was an inappropriate adjective))), but that is not me either.

Now see? I can write prose that looks like LISP. Kinda, vaguely, maybe relevant, eh? Eh?

Oh, nevermind.

So what exactly are you asking, twelvie? Are there poets here I admire and study? (Yes.) Do I envy some of the poets here? (Yes.) Do I think that thinking about how they do things helps me? (Yes, yes, yes.)

Do I want to Be More Like Them?

Uh, no. Not even you, however much I think you rock. Sorry.

Now, guitar envy's a diffrunt thing. I would trade negotiable securities to be able to play guitar like Eric Clapton. Or, (showing my age) even better, piano like Garrick Ohlsson.

 

[wildsweetone]

i've had so much help from pretty much all the poets here and they've all passed on advice in varying ways.

i still look forward, to those people whose writing i admire (many poets here) but now am on a plateau where i am growing, alone.

i think that now (even more than ever before) it is up to 'me' to do the work and to become whatever i want to become in the poetry world.

i have several 'chances at immortality' as my poetry writing takes on more than one form. i think it is not up to me to aim for immortality, it is up to whoever follows to think i am good enough to be immortalised.

interesting thoughts that helped confirm some things for me. thank you twelveoone.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

you'll sit up with me at a table and tell me all about yourself....then we'll discuss who'll be on their knees

Will there be plentiful liquor because we'll both need it.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

I sincerely hope to have more than one chance at something close to immorality.




It's tough, though. I don't seem to have much talent for it.

i would be glad to help with that. over fucking joyed.

and on-topic, I love the community as a whole, as an audience to bounce off of, and I'd find it impossible to select only one person as a prominent voice.

Reminds me of a joke. An old dude is sitting at the bar watching the cute chick re-do the chalkboard with the myriad types of exotic beer the bar has to offer. Finally he says, "darlin', wouldn't it be easier to list the ones you don't have?"

namaste
bijou