The Afterglow of His Meteor

3 posts
User avatar
Gender Male
Points 890
Reviews 227
Ok well, there are two types of free verse I think well. Either the deceptively simple or the intensely complex. You've definitely gone with the second option. Now please, please excuse my ignorance if I misinterpret or dont quite get the gist of what you are saying.


Ghost of a hand on my hip, everything you say is silent.
Yours is a haptic vernacular that makes me tremble
—the sense of endocrines welling beneath a sheet of want.


Well word choice is pretty amazing really, but I'm left confused as to what its all about. Is the ghost of a hand, real or not? Is this poem all about dread and fear or is it about something else? The subject matter is all a bit hazy for me, which isnt bad because thats probably how you write it to be.

You are no comfort when dread touches socket and tendon,


I'm a bit undecided about socket and tendon here, your trying to get over how all encompassing the dread is and the unusual lexical choice does that but it's a bit... odd. Yet again not something bad, probably how you intended it to read.

when the night is random and broken cells resound my name.
To bleed a brackish doggerel of whole-bodied grief,


was that meant to be a full stop? It seems like it leads on to the second line because that doesnt make much sense without it.

What broken cells are these? More for my enlightenment than anything else.

Very nice, my critique is more a question about whats going on than a criticism. I hope thats not annoying for you.
Sing we for joy and idleness,
Naught else is worth the having. -- Ezra Pound

PM if you're in need of a review.




User avatar
Gender None specified
Points 8413
Reviews 816
I liked the language of the poem, but I have little idea of what it's about on the whole, especially in the last stanza.




User avatar
Gender Female
Points 5688
Reviews 254
The scientific theme is nice, and I liked the way it connected everything. But the obscure words, combined the multisyllabic nuisance of words like 'vernacular' and the length of each line, made it into a bit of a tongue twister, and it was hard to let the whole thing wash over, to not pick apart each segment and get held up on each phrase. I enjoy poems with more flow to them, even if that rigid jerkiness and cold science was your desired effect. It was good to hear some fun words, though - for that I can appreciate it.
“It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting.” - Lemony Snicket



Sometimes even shooting stars find wishes that miss their marks.
— TryHardNinja