writing all of the sudden passion suddenly discussion

[Guest]

I'm wondering how many people are still true to the spirit of this thread. Do you really just open a message window and let it flow? to be honest I haven't always but this one - above - was just that, all of a sudden passion, suddenly.

 

[Angeline]

I'm wondering how many people are still true to the spirit of this thread. Do you really just open a message window and let it flow? to be honest I haven't always but this one - above - was just that, all of a sudden passion, suddenly.

I usually write off the cuff in this thread but I edit as I write. I had an ongoing disagreement with smithpeter as to whether editing before posting was "in the spirit of the thread," lol, but I say it is.

 

[Mariella-reads]

Tristesse ´n all,

it is my first "round" here so I am not yet in the mood to post a poem. But when I have the emotions for it I will remember that here is the place to post my stuff...

 

[annaswirls]

Off Topic My Apologies

I'm wondering how many people are still true to the spirit of this thread. Do you really just open a message window and let it flow? to be honest I haven't always but this one - above - was just that, all of a sudden passion, suddenly.

The biggest problem, I think, in editing as you go, is that it makes others less likely to stick to the spirit of the thread, even if that is what they intended to do... I put up the Poetry in Progress thread for that. I think that the spirit of the thread belongs to the person who started it. When people read recent posts to the thread and read polished poetry (No matter how passionate it was when originally written) they, as newcomers, miss the original concept)

There are plenty of other places to put poems that are not from the heart, written rapidly, no edits or written elsewhere.

To me, it is like wearing an evening dress to a nude beach.

okay maybe once in a while, a fully clothed person can show up and the nudests can still feel comfortable, hell they may feel comfortable if they are the only nude one there.

BUT if I went to a nude beach for the first time, fully intending to take it all off, and saw that most of the people were NOT then I would be much less likely to join in. Because I am not confident being nude in public.

I am confident enough to write dumbass, embarassing, chock full of mistakes things that might not even be poetry here, even among edited work. I don't care if someone reads my work here and thinks it sucks as poetry.

Not everyone is, and it seems to me to be a shame that they do not have a place to write off the cuff, as it is the only place here that it is encouraged-- a place where that is how the thread was started.

There are very few places on this forum where there are criteria set down up front.

It seems very few people write off the cuff here anymore. If you go back to the first few pages, you will see how much fun it was. It is not as much fun when so few people are playing.



I know everyone should do what they want, and no one should look to what others do or say and be influenced by it, this may be ideal, but that is simply not human.

I have even seen criticism of misspellings and critique of poems written here. It just does not seem appropriate.

Ange, I believe wholeheartedly that you and Douglas had conversations about this. I had them too from a different perspective. When I started I even wrote somewhere else, in the spirit of the thread and copied/pasted it here. He explained to me why that was not a good idea too.

I have my own mind, and I am not saying that I do/did whatever he said. I believe it because I do.


Going agains the spirit of the thread, to me, would be like writing free verse in a thread specifically originated as a Villanelle thread. Sure it would be okay if every now and then that happened, but if in the end no one was writing Villanelles, what is the point? Especially if there is a free verse thread right next door.

Having said that, I know everyone will continue to do what they want here. I just wanted to add another perspective.

Having said that, I have to admit to backspacing without a thought and changing a letter here and there to fix some typo, but not re-reading what I said and fixing it.

"fixing" something that is perfect in it's imperfection is an oxymoron.

the imperfect perfection

the perfect imperfection

My opinion, tis all.

Thank you Tess, for bringing it up.

~Jennifer

 

[flyguy69]

This is probably the only thread in which i am not lookinig for feedback (though i will leave it, if your post is particularly breathtaking!). Stuff I post here does not begin life with any intention of growing up. And i compose in the reply window, though I do backspace.

 

[Tathagata]

about 95% of what I write in here is thought up as I go ( witness saturdays stellar entry)
sometimes I'll get a phrase or two in my head come here and pound it out to see where it goes..
many of the things i write here get carried over to the construction thread
not all of them deserve it

 

[Liar]

I'm wondering how many people are still true to the spirit of this thread. Do you really just open a message window and let it flow?

Yep. But I write quite slow, so perhaps I get to think through my passages and structure more than I really should?

 

[gregariousbomb]

I just let er fly like birdseed.

 

[Guest]

I'm wondering how many people are still true to the spirit of this thread. Do you really just open a message window and let it flow? to be honest I haven't always but this one - above - was just that, all of a sudden passion, suddenly.

I enjoy going to that thread from time to time. I haven't been here too long, and haven't posted much there, but when I do, I edit as I go along, and preview before I click submit. Still, there happens to be errors and need for improvement, but I like the fact I don't have to worry about any feedback. I also take pleasure in reading others work.

 

[Rybka]

I guess I'm odd man out. I never post "as you go" poetry. I may e-mail a few people and ask for advice, but generally I don't like to show my words to anyone until I have them in some semblance of order that I like (and this may take quite a bit of time). - I think part of the reason I feel this way is an irrational fear that until a poem is finished and I put my name to it, it is fair game for anyone else to appropriate. - Kind of like deer hunting, the deer ain't mine until I tag it. There are other hunters in the woods and if I jump a deer someone else may shoot and claim it. (I once actually had this happen. I shot a deer (in the neck) and it ran off. It crossed in front of another hunter who killed it and tagged it before I caught up with it.)

 

[Guest]

After writing what I just did in passion suddenly, I now take back what I said in the other post here. I didn't edit, and it looks BAD!! Oh well, it wouldn't be the first.

 

[Angeline]

The biggest problem, I think, in editing as you go, is that it makes others less likely to stick to the spirit of the thread, even if that is what they intended to do... I put up the Poetry in Progress thread for that. I think that the spirit of the thread belongs to the person who started it. When people read recent posts to the thread and read polished poetry (No matter how passionate it was when originally written) they, as newcomers, miss the original concept)

There are plenty of other places to put poems that are not from the heart, written rapidly, no edits or written elsewhere.

To me, it is like wearing an evening dress to a nude beach.

okay maybe once in a while, a fully clothed person can show up and the nudests can still feel comfortable, hell they may feel comfortable if they are the only nude one there.

BUT if I went to a nude beach for the first time, fully intending to take it all off, and saw that most of the people were NOT then I would be much less likely to join in. Because I am not confident being nude in public.

I am confident enough to write dumbass, embarassing, chock full of mistakes things that might not even be poetry here, even among edited work. I don't care if someone reads my work here and thinks it sucks as poetry.

Not everyone is, and it seems to me to be a shame that they do not have a place to write off the cuff, as it is the only place here that it is encouraged-- a place where that is how the thread was started.

There are very few places on this forum where there are criteria set down up front.

It seems very few people write off the cuff here anymore. If you go back to the first few pages, you will see how much fun it was. It is not as much fun when so few people are playing.



I know everyone should do what they want, and no one should look to what others do or say and be influenced by it, this may be ideal, but that is simply not human.

I have even seen criticism of misspellings and critique of poems written here. It just does not seem appropriate.

Ange, I believe wholeheartedly that you and Douglas had conversations about this. I had them too from a different perspective. When I started I even wrote somewhere else, in the spirit of the thread and copied/pasted it here. He explained to me why that was not a good idea too.

I have my own mind, and I am not saying that I do/did whatever he said. I believe it because I do.


Going agains the spirit of the thread, to me, would be like writing free verse in a thread specifically originated as a Villanelle thread. Sure it would be okay if every now and then that happened, but if in the end no one was writing Villanelles, what is the point? Especially if there is a free verse thread right next door.

Having said that, I know everyone will continue to do what they want here. I just wanted to add another perspective.

Having said that, I have to admit to backspacing without a thought and changing a letter here and there to fix some typo, but not re-reading what I said and fixing it.

"fixing" something that is perfect in it's imperfection is an oxymoron.

the imperfect perfection

the perfect imperfection

My opinion, tis all.

Thank you Tess, for bringing it up.

~Jennifer

Well, I'm an editor. Editing is an act of passion for me. And my edited poems are clearly from the heart anyway, I think.

This is the discussion I had with smithpeter, lol. Anyway I don't edit in that thread after I post, only before and I made Doug give me permission. Which he did with a thousand reservations, but I told him "I let you do whatever you want in my threads, damnit."

 

[PatCarrington]

I am confident enough to write dumbass, embarassing, chock full of mistakes things that might not even be poetry here, even among edited work. I don't care if someone reads my work here and thinks it sucks as poetry.

Not everyone is, and it seems to me to be a shame that they do not have a place to write off the cuff, as it is the only place here that it is encouraged-- a place where that is how the thread was started.

i don't think it's a matter of confidence, but habit.

'off-the-cuff' means different things to different people.

i do not write on the passion thread without backspacing. i don't do it consciously. my fingers do it 'automatically'. i know no other way to write. so to me, that IS off-the-cuff.

i edit as i write always, as Ange says she does. it just happens. my mind is whirring, and my fingers go by themselves.

like Russian, writing without simultaneously editing is a language i do not speak.

i never go back and change words, or lines, or stanza breaks, or anything else. but i simply am not capable of writing in a straight forward line, left to right and march.

it doesn't happen that way for me, no matter what mindset i'm in.

 

[minsue]

I type straight in the reply window and I, too, automatically backspace and change words as fast as I can type them. I don't usually edit after it's all on the screen, though. Half the time I don't even read it through before I hit submit. More of a hit and run, kind of like grafitti.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I'm wondering how many people are still true to the spirit of this thread. Do you really just open a message window and let it flow? to be honest I haven't always but this one - above - was just that, all of a sudden passion, suddenly.

I have only posted on the all-of-a-sudden-passion thread a few scarce times, because I always felt that the spirit in which smithpeter created it should be kept.

Personally, I can't write stream-of-counciousness poetry except on very rare occasions, but I also don't think that smithpeter meant that we're not allowed to edit on-the-fly, or backspace. That would be impossible for me. But when I post there, I don't copy-paste from Word, I don't run spell checks, and I don't spend more time in it than I absolutely need to.

If, later on, I decide to submit the poem, I'll probably edit, and re-work it, but I won't touch the all-of-a-sudden version. It is there, and it will be there. It's a thread purely for first drafts.

 

[Guest]

<snip>
Personally, I can't write stream-of-counciousness poetry except on very rare occasions, but I also don't think that smithpeter meant that we're not allowed to edit on-the-fly, or backspace. That would be impossible for me. But when I post there, I don't copy-paste from Word, I don't run spell checks, and I don't spend more time in it than I absolutely need to.

If, later on, I decide to submit the poem, I'll probably edit, and re-work it, but I won't touch the all-of-a-sudden version. It is there, and it will be there. It's a thread purely for first drafts.

This is much my method too. I'm not above editing on the fly but I don't think it is in the spirit of sp's thread to copy-paste. If I'm pleasantly surprised I'll work some more and may be submit.

 

[flyguy69]

I have only posted on the all-of-a-sudden-passion thread a few scarce times, because I always felt that the spirit in which smithpeter created it should be kept.

Personally, I can't write stream-of-counciousness poetry except on very rare occasions, but I also don't think that smithpeter meant that we're not allowed to edit on-the-fly, or backspace. That would be impossible for me. But when I post there, I don't copy-paste from Word, I don't run spell checks, and I don't spend more time in it than I absolutely need to.

If, later on, I decide to submit the poem, I'll probably edit, and re-work it, but I won't touch the all-of-a-sudden version. It is there, and it will be there. It's a thread purely for first drafts.

All this talk of editing on the fly is getting me excited.

 

[The_Fool]

I guess you could say I cheat because I do usually write my posts in a word processor and then cut and paste. I also backspace when I see something stupid, but what I write is what I write. The reason I use the word processor is that all to often, I will be in the middle of a long post and accidently blow the whole thing away. I usually say bad things at that point. But my all the suddenly posts usually run from two to ten minutes to compose.

 

[BooMerengue]

i don't think it's a matter of confidence, but habit.

'off-the-cuff' means different things to different people.

i do not write on the passion thread without backspacing. i don't do it consciously. my fingers do it 'automatically'. i know no other way to write. so to me, that IS off-the-cuff.

i edit as i write always, as Ange says she does. it just happens. my mind is whirring, and my fingers go by themselves.

like Russian, writing without simultaneously editing is a language i do not speak.

i never go back and change words, or lines, or stanza breaks, or anything else. but i simply am not capable of writing in a straight forward line, left to right and march.

it doesn't happen that way for me, no matter what mindset i'm in.

I thought the phrase was 'off with the cuffs'.

My bad.

 

[*Catbabe*]

I never write in straight lines. It's always back and forth with me so my first drafts may appear less passionate and more 'edited' than others. I assumed that as long as the poem was birthed in one straight session and was still shaped exactly the way it was at it's birth, then it qualified for the thread.

Anyway, it was never my intent to contribute to anyone's upset. My poems there are few and far between so it will be easy for me to avoid the thread entirely.

 

[Angeline]

I never write in straight lines. It's always back and forth with me so my first drafts may appear less passionate and more 'edited' than others. I assumed that as long as the poem was birthed in one straight session and was still shaped exactly the way it was at it's birth, then it qualified for the thread.

Anyway, it was never my intent to contribute to anyone's upset. My poems there are few and far between so it will be easy for me to avoid the thread entirely.

I think Patrick hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that for some people writing and editing are almost the same thing--that *is* the way I think when I write. I may be in the third section of a poem and as I'm writing that section, I'm simultaneously thinking about a line in the first part that won't work anymore. So I do go back and edit before I hit "reply." And like Tath and Pat, many of my poems that start in the passion thread move to the progress thread.

Editing is part of my drafting process. It's hindsight, but I am sure that smithpeter would not want anyone to change the way they write to fit the rules of a thread. He wasn't a rules kinda guy in that sense.

 

[annaswirls]

Yep. But I write quite slow, so perhaps I get to think through my passages and structure more than I really should?

IMHO thinking is acceptable but not necessary




your passion poems are intensely spirited in the spirit of the well you know

amen

is this cat saying

pshaw?

 

[annaswirls]

I think Patrick hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that for some people writing and editing are almost the same thing--that *is* the way I think when I write. I may be in the third section of a poem and as I'm writing that section, I'm simultaneously thinking about a line in the first part that won't work anymore. So I do go back and edit before I hit "reply." And like Tath and Pat, many of my poems that start in the passion thread move to the progress thread.

Editing is part of my drafting process. It's hindsight, but I am sure that smithpeter would not want anyone to change the way they write to fit the rules of a thread. He wasn't a rules kinda guy in that sense.

edited out my long message to say--

he said many things to many people specifically about his feelings towards the spirit of this thread. I am not going to say anything more on the subject. it is really on the first post, what else is there really.

we can remember what he said to us, look back to the orignial post and make our own interpretations

and decide what matters.

I would not presume to predict his thoughts on this topic today.

peace,
anna

 

[WickedEve]

This is such a simple matter. We have many threads here, and a few, like the passion thread, are enduring. We, as a community, have decided to keep the passion thread alive. Originally, smithpeter started the writing live thread in 2002. He wanted spontaneous writing. Then in 2003 he offered us the passion thread. Also spontaneous, unedited writing. I know he told me and a few others what he wanted. He also posted his wishes from time to time on the threads. And if he was still telling anna in 2004 what he wanted, then... that is what the thread is all about. He is gone now and the thread belongs to the poetry community. Basically, the poetry on the passion thread is spontaneous, or spontaneous enough. We try to limit chat, and most off-topic posts are removed. That's why I made this discussion a thread of its own. Yes, some poems on the passion thread do appear polished. The best we can do is try to keep with the spirit of the thread (if that's what the majority of us want), and overlook posts that don't seem to be very spontaneous. Most of the time, it's an easy-going thread that makes many of us happy. I always enjoy posting there and many of my poems are later revised and submitted to lit. It is a good idea for someone to occasionally repost the original smithpeter post as a reminder to new poets in our community. Now, let's all go write some sudden passion.

 

[Tathagata]

Anyway, it was never my intent to contribute to anyone's upset. My poems there are few and far between so it will be easy for me to avoid the thread entirely.

Everything everyone does here upsets someone

Don't stop posting things
or I'll make the trip north and bring the paddle...