If you’ve got this far then you are either a new member, in which case “Welcome”,
or you’re an existing member, in which case “Welcome back (but seriously
you need to get out more)”.
If you’ve posted work then you are hoping it will be read and it will
receive some feedback, and as such you have the obligation as part of this community
to share your opinions on other peoples work – its an essential part of
maintaining the community, sharing not only your work but your views –
without it the community would soon disappear and simply become a population.
Poetry (and creative writing) is the practice of creating artworks using language.
Musicians use sound; painters, paint; sculptors, well whatever is handy, marble,
steel, an unmade bed or half a cow…. Poets and writers use language in
a concentrated, original and often experimental way – it’s the exploration
of experience through the written word, be it personal or observed, real or
fantasy.
Given the number of postings tend to be poetry, for the purposes of the next
bit I’ll concentrate on the poem…. And now comes the difficult bit,
there is no cut and dried definition of poetry so how can you comment on it?
Most can probably remember the horror of being asked in class what Wordsworth
meant by this, what Shakespeare meant by that, and what was Blake’s intention,
(and was e.e cummings on drugs?!), so to constructively comment on an unknown
writers work will seem a daunting task… well its not, not here, this is
a community and we are all here to help each grow and develop our writing skills
– here EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION.
Commenting is simple, lets assume you’ve read a poem and feel like you
want to say something, well go ahead and post whatever comment you want, there
are no rules here….. but let’s assume you want to really give the
author of the poem a considered view about their writing, and bear in mind not
everyone who posts a poem thinks it’s going to be read out on Four Wedding
and a Funeral II.
Here’s some simple guidance which you can choose to follow or not, but
also bear in mind, if everyone said ‘screw that’ we’d be back
to population and not community. Few would benefit from your insight to help
them grow as writers, and you also would not reap the rewards of constructive
feedback.
Try avoid making only ‘value judgements’ –
whilst it’s nice to know “this is a great poem” or “good
work”, in isolation it equals so what. The same applies the other way,
“rubbish poem”, equals big deal, whatever. It’s not going
to help the author and equally, as the recipient of such a comment, it’s
not going to help you. Tell them why it’s either good or bad in your view.
Comment on the poem, not the poet – whilst this is a
community and you will get to know people, you may know why and for what reason
a poem was written, but more often than not though you’ll have little
or no idea what the author was thinking or feeling when they wrote it. So don’t
use the poem to try and work that out, stick to the text. Try not to assume
because the poem says something to you it must have been what the poet was thinking,
that’s delving into the authors psychology and will often lead up a blind
alley. Talk about what the poem meant to you, the reader.
Keep an open mind – there are many members of the community,
of all ages, geographies, cultures and beliefs, here we believe in freedom but
more importantly sharing and helping people build their writing skills. There
will be conflicts, there always are in any community, but if they are kept healthy
and reasoned it will build the community further.
Most of all though… ENJOY YOURSELF…
Drew
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