Young Writers Society

Well, you see, I always thought of poetry as very personal. My brothers a poet and now and then he gives me something to edit or critique, but it's never really for content rather than coherency (he writes to express a message and if it isn't understood it's rubbish to him). So, as I am reading these poems I'm not seeing any message at all. I don't see the purpose of writing them and it bothers me because I don't know how to critique them. The only other thing I can do well is critique a certain style of poetry--spoken word and poetry that has a specific rhythm/rhyme scheme. Anything other than that and I feel like I'm being arrogant because I'm not comfortable with this style of poetry. Nevertheless, I enjoy such poetry, it just...I can't give any criticism on it besides "sounds nice to me" or "seems a bit off." Free verse just baffles me! I feel like every free verse poem I read is completely reminiscent, yet totally independent of the last one....Well, if there are any tips, please post them or PM me or something. I'm really at an ends.

I'd also like to know what you "free verse" birds really want to be critiqued.


Well, there it is.

Thanks.
YATTA!

First of all, writing a free verse poem does not automatically make it incoherent. Free verse by definition simply means that you're not confined by any poetic rules or laws such as an iambic pentameter or any other sort of rhyming scheme.

Free verse is the only sort of poetry I write, because I usually find anything with a rhyming scheme smacking of Mother Goose. And I suppose you could call me a little abstract as well. When I write poetry, I write it to paint a snapshot. I want to provoke images and provoke them as powerfully as possible. For instance, I could say "Global warming is toasting the planet" and you would understand what I'm getting at, or I could travel a more unique, "incoherent" route and say something like this:

You see, the color of the sky (contrary to popular belief)
isn't always black. Sometimes it lowers it's
Japanese hand fan and blushes a resonant blue.
But not for long.
Because somehow we've been dropped onto God's backyard grill

and someone's been inking seared tattoos in erotic shapes
(Chinese dragons for instance, complete with seaweed beards)
onto our ozone. Which by now, probably looks something
like Christ's wrists.

They both say the same thing, but one of them goes the extra mile and paints a picture for you in beautiful watercolors. Which is more appealing to you? Would you rather be told, or shown?

I think I speak for all "free verse birds": When I write a poem like the one above, I'm not just spitting out whatever comes to mind onto paper, I'm relating an idea using different and new techniques. Personally, a poem means much more to me when I have to read it a couple times before I grasp the concept. I'm working for it.

-Kylan

Every poem has a message no matter how freely it can soar or how contemporary it may be. Sometimes you have to look at the mirror image of the words and think about what is written between the lines. Words have millions of meanings to them and when a poet, such as myself, writes a poem we don't want people to see what we saw when we picked up the pencil and wrote the words but we want others to interpret our words their way.
I started writing poetry when I was in fourth grade, at first nothing I wrote made sense to others outside my mind because they weren't me. They weren't going through the things that I were going through in that one part of my life. So what I'm trying to say is, the worse possible thing that you can do to make a poet feel that their work isn't self-explanatory or understandable is to start droning on about the techniques and the poem forms, stanzas yada yada yada. Poems are simply the lives of people who have a message that they want to spread. To end my message my only advice is to really look at the words, paint a picture and really try to understand a poet's words your own way.

CAW!
I don't know, I like the meter and syntax of natural thought and breath. That is to me what free verse is, an exercise in baring your nervous system like so much eloquent graffiti. Its also pretty fun.

For critiquing free verse, consider looking at the imagery that the words create. Tell your brother what you think the imagery is saying and then he'll realize if it's on or off the mark of what he wanted to create. If you can't "see" anything from the description of his poem, tell him that too. It'll make him realize that he hasn't done his job right.

Good luck with critiquing!