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Last edited by Galerius on Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:26 pm, edited 3 times in total.




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Oh wow, this is really beautiful! I absolutely love your word choice, it paints a perfect (if not melo-dramatic) picture!
The only thing I think you could have done a little better is explained it slightly, it's mildly confusing, but other than that, I think its a very, very good poem! It seems almost like a old folk song, dark but very beautiful, great job!

Keep Writing!




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Hi Galleri! Juniper here!

Sadly, I do not have much to say about this poem, although it's so brilliantly done.

Only little nitpick I have with this is:

(they'll planta tree or drift

on some toast from a camp fireplace anyway)



I'm not sure if this is supposed to be "plant a" or as it is? :P

Anyway! You have superb imagery here, extremely wonderful structure, and brilliant description. I love how you began with "and"; it suggests that this is an ongoing story with more preceding it.


I love how you chose to word this as well, it's rather unique-- instead of reading smoothly in general, traditional style, you really have a unique sentence style here. Well done.


I've spent far too long on this poem trying to find something worthwhile to say, and I really can't. I found it really, really well written and excellently done.

Keep it up!

Juniper ;)

(gold star, by the way. ;))
"I'd steal somebody's purse if I could google it and then download it." -- Firestarter




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Galeeerius!

stampedes through the tenement - rickety
huts - and ignores the shouts from the guards,


Is that what you think of me? Rickety? D:

So I'm gonna make this as constructive/opinionative as possible. I feel I owe you that much.

and sank the U-boat upon a prickled
wood and Jawohl Jawohl across a
line drawn in the ocean chalked up by sailors,
flagships upon a dressing gown, fragments
of linen upon a girl around a dressing gown.

a line of combat boots and salute(s) to the
crease of a wedding veil wrapped like a tiny
hand on a cold flesh mildew, sparkling like ashes
thrown by pitchers into the wind so the wind
may have some too.


The beginning and how you start with just and is really cool, so don't change that. Especially because it all makes sense by the end. ^^

Get rid of the parentheses. Combat boots is plural, so why not salutes?

Your second stanza loses me halfway through. It doesn't make much sense, no matter how I read it. Like a hopeless run-on. Run-ons can be good, and you use them a lot, but this one specifically just doesn't make sense. xD I'm not sure what kind of "mixture," if you will, the image is making to throw around the wind. It's... just weird. Try to rethink that part. I wish I could give an example, but I just don't know where you're going with this. XD (And my style is no where like yours!)

Jawohl Jawohl
on a dressing gown on a pile of useless clothing
racing to a duel mechanism, huffing and puffing
bent out of shape and too late
for there are already old men and newborns dancing
together in the twilight, arms locked together by
a waltz and melted by the heat of the North Star,

The sunny side stands,
beating a chest while seamen knit into the sweater

feel a little better


After reading the whole thing, this entire thing makes so much sense. It's almost too cool how it just falls apart at the end. XD I have nothing wrong with this part.

"Feel a little better" is just amazing too. It feels like a climax, but it's just starting to unfold the mystery behind this poem. ^^

and fluttering ear skin like a torn clothing from a girl
who could not catch it but tore her fingers on the fence -
electric, ripples of laughter up her charred veins toward a brain
stigmata rushing from the Son 's sunny touch -
tore her fingers on the fence electrified by torn fingers.

A whipped cavalry of roaring specters (drunk on giddiness
and a lust to break the Milky Way like a walnut)
cracks a forgotten earth,
stampedes through the tenement - rickety
huts - and ignores the shouts from the guards,


The first stanza here seems so redundant it's confusing. electricfencetornfingerselectricfenceelectricfingerstorn-- wha..? You could probably just shring this into a one-liner, the way it's read right now. It get lost in it; not sure what the point of it is.

The second stanza's awesome. Again, it makes sense once we read the end. The mystery's in mid-blossom!

Jawohl Jawohl!

gallops into courtyard, burned shells
smelling with burnt hair and ashen lips
smacking of love and dirt (they'll plant a tree or drift
on some toast from a camp fireplace anyway)

while alone the breezy curtain past,
sailors high on a dynamited galaxy within nine folds,
folding again and unfolding jellyfish sputters, raises itself
to a thunderous half applause.

and the Son in the audience taps his foot impatiently
and tries to check his watch, wondering when half past nine
will come.


Now, I feel the Son was mentioned earlier in a confusing stanza, but I still can't make sense of his place there? Here, it seems just perfect. Earlier, not so much.

The ending's amazing. The end. xD *no pun intended*

Does jawohl mean "well done"? *thinks*

That's all I can pick at! You have such a unique style, I'm afraid to do anymore than I did. Besides, I picked out everything that I had even a little concern for. Hopefully that will help you when rereading this and deciding where the fault is. ^^

Great job once again! Keep writing!

Jabber, the One and Only!
I make my own policies.




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Galerius --

I've read some of you poetry before. You're very talented when it comes to manipulating words into these sprawling images and concepts. You're very talented at creating certain emotions and snapshots, certain truffles of inspiration, cracks of light down dark hallways. But what I see you lacking is what I lack in my poetry as well: relatability. Sense. Meaning. I think you and I have a lot in common. Many times people will look at our poetry and ask, but what does this mean? This is frustrating, because poetry is a kind of shapeshifter, a universal material. We, as poets, give the basic framework for a concept (writing it with a specific meaning in mind for ourselves), a shell which we fill with images, feelings, thoughts, but it is up to the reader to define whatever meaning they will from it. Reading poetry is not meant to be a passive experience. It is something you return to. It is something you read again, and again. You taste each passage. You gain a picture of the whole by analyzing its parts. If I am incorrect in the assumption that you agree with me, I'd love it if you'd PM me so we could discuss this a little.

With that said, I think your poetry is a little too aloof for public understanding. It's very stream-of-consciousness. It's abstract and bizarre. It takes on many different faces and angles, dancing around a vague topic (in this case, world war two, I imagine). It definately conjures some powerful images, but these images are severely disjointed and scrambled. Obviously, there are references to christianity here. And Jawhol means "aye, aye sir" or simply "yes". I look at these things all thrown together, and I see a lot of beautiful clutter. It's rich, decadent, fatty. For the longest time, I've been trying to pull away from writing such poetry, so my ideas and images can be more concentrated, and less scattered.

I like this because it is different. I also like the first stanza. You broke into this piece strong. There were bits and pieces of this poem which were reminiscent of Hemingway's writing style in A Farewell To Arms.

I don't like this because it is messy. It's bloated. You've got all these wonderful images floating around. Now you just have to work on harnessing one or two or three, pinning them down solidly and working around those.

Please PM me.

-Kylan
"I am beginning to despair
and can see only two choices:
either go crazy or turn holy."

- Serenade, Adélia Prado




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Hey Gal, Jon here!

and sank the U-boat upon a prickled

This was an interesting opening, with the 'and' to start it. Nice touch. However, a U-boat isn't a boat, I hope you know. *Under Zea bootin* 'u-boat' from the Germans. However, you can't sink a U-Boat because they are under the water. What I'm saying is, is that you have it sink on a jagged piece of wood, which *floats* When you say U-Boat, it makes me think of under water. Wood is *On* the water. So. You might want to fix that. Just have it a a ship, plus, later on you say a sailor. Sailors don't control a submarine. :wink: However! I do like the very start of it! It was unique how you started with 'and'. :wink:

wood and Jawohl Jawohl across a

line drawn in the ocean chalked up by sailors,

'Jawohl means ,"Yes" to a superior. (Which I just looked up.) So, obviously there is a personn following the captain's orders of going where he has planned. However, Why wouldn't the captain do it. After all, he is the captain of the ship and controller of the wheel. Maybe you can have him relinquish his *Authority*. :wink:


a line of combat boots and salute(s) to the

crease of a wedding veil wrapped like a tiny

hand on a cold flesh mildew, sparkling like ashes

thrown by pitchers into the wind so the wind

may have some too.

Hm... I don't like this bit of imagery here. It makes no sense, just read it. What it says is: Sailors line up and salute as clean and sharp as the fold of a veil. *You don't fold veils* Then the sailors salute like they are wrapped around a dead person like a child would, while they shine like ashes to the wind? What?? Ashes don't sparkle. They're dull. "Cold flesh mildew'? What? That's so random. You might as well say, "Hot haired water'. This stanza needs to be more tied together and clear.

I know that poetry can be obscure, but, this is just not organized into an idea. It's just random images thrown at us.



and fluttering ear skin like a torn clothing from a girl

who could not catch it but tore her fingers on the fence -

electric, ripples of laughter up her charred veins toward a brain

stigmata rushing from the Son 's sunny touch -

tore her fingers on the fence electrified by torn fingers.

Gal, Gal, Gal. This just makes no sense, I'm sorry. 'clothing' should be 'cloth'? Gal, this is too jumpy from the last Stanza. You need to get your ideas straight.

Fluttering ear skin? How does that even make sense to what the rest of your poem is? . What you say in this stanza is that: Fluttering ear skin is like a girl who could not catch her clothing on the wind and tore her finger on a fence which electrocutes her, but it doesn't. The son is the one who electrocutes her. What? Make it make some sort of sense, or get one simple idea out. you have way too many things going on in each stanza to make it clear. It's good to make you think in a poem, but, this is too much. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Remember that.



A whipped cavalry of roaring specters (drunk on giddiness

and a lust to break the Milky Way like a walnut)

cracks a forgotten earth,


This I liked. However, 'cracks' should be 'cracked' The (...) is just a little more to describe what going on. You still have to have a clear sentence when it starts and ends, though. So, "A whipped cavalry of roaring specters cracks a forgotten earth." If you use past tense, keep the same with 'cracks' So: 'cracked'. Plus, it sounds better. :wink:



gallops into courtyard, burned shells

Who gallops into a courtyard? Perhaps Jawohl. 'Yes' galloping into a courtyard. I like it. However, be careful here.

smelling with burnt hair and ashen lips

smacking of love and dirt

Burnt shells smell with burnt hair and ashy lips that smack love and, and dirt? Gal, once again. It has no meaning, I feel as if you just threw a bunch of random things onto the paper to make it sound 'smart' or something. These words do no connect in anyway at all. :(







Overall -- The things I didn't mention are the things I thought were okay and liked. You need to make this poem make some sense. I came away from this poem with little to nothing but bewilderment. I went from sailors and torn off ears with piles of cloths to torn fingers that were electrocuted by a Son that was 'sunny'. I mean, what? You have a lot of imagery, but what is imagery without a solid idea?


Anyway, not some of your best work, Gal.


I don't mean to sound harsh. Just my feelings on it.


---Jon---
:D
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Hey Gal. Bear with me here.

flagships upon a dressing gown, fragments
of linen upon a girl around a dressing gown.


a line of combat boots and salute(s) to the
crease of a wedding veil wrapped like a tiny
hand on a cold flesh mildew, sparkling like ashes
thrown by pitchers into the wind
so the wind
may have some too.

Jawohl Jawohl
on a dressing gown on a pile of useless clothing
racing to a duel mechanism, huffing and puffing

bent out of shape and too late
for there are already old men and newborns dancing
together in the twilight, arms locked together by
a waltz and melted by the heat of the North Star,


This is the only part of the poem that I did not enjoy. Now, I say 'enjoy' instead of 'like' because, in truth, I did like it. I liked the words you used, I liked the feeling it had, I liked some of the images these stanzas conjured up for me. But I did not enjoy them, I don't think. They did nothing for me by way of emotion. In all honesty, from this the most vivid thought I had was-- "run on sentences run on sentences and and and".

My first complaint is the repetition of 'dressing gown'. I did like and enjoy some of the other repetition you used in this poem; here, for example:

tore her fingers on the fence electrified by torn fingers.


This part-- and the stanza around it --was wonderful, simply because there was this substance behind it that I feel so much of this poem is lacking. There is a clear point here that, although you do not spell it out, it's there, as long as your readers look for it. Maybe its not the point you were trying to make, but that line can be (as Kylan said) relatable. Understandable. Meaningful. The repetition holds more than slapping the same words down again-- the meaning is transformed.

As for the repetition here, with the dressing gown (where I bolded), I get none of that. The transition between the dressing gown to duel mechanism to dancing men and newborns, it's all very muddled and erratic. We don't have time to absorb whatever meaning you hid there, because you're jumping to the next image-- an image which doesn't even coherantly connect.

The part that I highlighted in red: I did not follow it. The descriptions did not compute with me. Cold flesh mildew? I'm getting visions of zombies, not soldiers.

The sunny side stands,
beating a chest while seamen knit into the sweater

feel a little better


Beautiful. These lines are simplistically meaningful. 'Meaningful' being the key word here. :wink:

while alone the breezy curtain past,
sailors high on a dynamited galaxy within nine folds,
folding again and unfolding jellyfish sputters, raises itself
to a thunderous half applause.


This was a borderline stanza for me-- but you lost me at the mention of jellyfish. I'm not sure at all what you're going for there, with the jellyfish mention-- maybe the slinking, oozing consistancy? But then I think I'm taking this too literally. I don't think the connection between a jellyfish and a thunderous half-applause is strong enough for that stanza to work. I don't feel like you're connecting a lot of these abstract images quite as well as you could be.

:arrow:

All in all, I come away (as always) with mized feeling. The stanza about the fence and torn fingers is exactly the kind of beautiful imagery I'm looking for, but so much of the rest of the poem is lacking coherancy. They're pretty, rich, colorful words, but I compare them to intricately patterned lace-- wonderful to look at, but filled with gaps to the touch, and not strong enough to hold this poem up.

Work on stringing these images and thoughts together to make a product that feels more connected, as well as the beautiful you have here. PM me for anything.

~Evi
"Let's eat, Grandma!" as opposed to "Let's eat Grandma!": punctuation saves lives.



Poetry is like a bird, it ignores all frontiers.
— Yevgeny Yevtushenko