tony legba
And let's make a very obvious point against this nonsense.
The Pool, supposedly is for those poets who want "harsher", which really ought to mean: more detailed and honest criticism.
If you don't want this--which is the purpose of the Poetbay Pool--go and paddle elsewhere. Don't go fishing for what you do not want to hear. It is quite silly behaviour. Surely, if you enter poorly executed rubbish for criticism you are going to end up being executed. The fault isn't in those who tell the truth--it is in the act of placing the poem there in the hope that friends will lie to make you happy: and in the friends who dutifully do so to perjure themselves in the name of friendship. No friendship, real or virtual, is of much use if it avoids intimacy and truth-telling.
2007-01-05

tony legba
"Friends are more important than ideas"? That is a great credo for a poet. A Ginsberg howl? That has to be an example of comparing the minor with the major and looking ridiculous. "Ivory tower"? Pouring scorn on education is one way of covering up a chip on the shoulder. What is wrong here is the arrogance: on one hand, a confession that "I know nothing"; on the other, an attack on those who know something and have used it to show others how to improve their talent. The attack on the "superior" really only shows a rooted sense of inferiority. Really, a quite pointless and prejudicial rant. "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" Not worth debating.
2007-01-04

Phyllis J. Rhodes
Liz you are such a wiz
and I love this ranting biz
It tiz what it tiz
and I agree
would intellectuals call this
poetry?
No siree
except you and me
but as far as I see
we are smart as can be
so why not
take a shot
write a lot
and call it whatever
are we not cleaver?
I think you are
You are a star
Poetry is what you do
So maybe I can do it too
We care not
about the elite
We have too much fun
to compete
We just write poems
from our mind
of every species, type and kind.
2007-01-04

wee2souls
you go girl!! power to ya..as i wrote something about how
people judge and ooooh!! just makes me want to have a
FITERAMA! NO WHERE NO HOW!! should anyone judge
and if ya dont have anything good to say...
DON'T COMMENT! GREAT WRITE!!!!!!
as we here do have freedom of speech
hugs to you my sista friend

cindy
2007-01-04

D.D. Michaels
I couldn't agree more, Liz. Everybody has the right to express themselves in their own individual voice and style, and who on earth has the right to criticize what comes from someone's heart and mind. There really is no right or wrong in poetry, as far as I am concerned, and I appreciate your speaking out for those who have been criticized by the ivory tower, academic snobs out there.

D.D. Michaels
2007-01-04