z

Young Writers Society


Alpha and Beth



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81 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 5134
Reviews: 81
Fri Apr 09, 2021 9:06 am
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kattee says...



@Liminality
Spoiler! :

I just realised I haven’t replied to this. I’m so sorry!!

Ah yes, the yellow checked pavement hahah. I might’ve potentially possibly been referencing a certain book on some of my illustrations. It’s my favourite classic book when I was a child >.> Hint: they’re made of bricks.

Many many thanks for the kind words AHHHH!!! And those quuestions, well <.< um <.< i’m not technically hiding their identity for long HAHA



@Spearmint
Spoiler! :

THAT’S SUCH A GREAT IDEA OH MY GOODNESS. I might use “existential poetry” in the future. It’s so relevant to my poem AHH THANK U THANK U <3

Also ooooooh i didn’t think that the “end” could be interpreted like that. I was planning to use it as a means of transition to the next poem actually but learning that my poem could still partially stand-alone even with those lines makes me happy! Thank you for your thoughts!!!
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Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:49 pm
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Liminality says...



Hiya kattee! Oh this recent one is so interesting! I love the composition of words + images, which especially got me at the part with the camera. I feel like this poem is telling a story about someone who 'left' something in fear of that something leaving them first or remembering them poorly, hence the desire to leave an impression of "honey-sap".

The comparison to tourist sites was also really striking. For me, it created a sense of being 'used up', almost, especially with the images of pollution and sewage. You're doing great with this, kattee! <3
she/her

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81 Reviews



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Sun Apr 11, 2021 1:51 pm
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kattee says...



spenserian sonnet: —



Image

Spoiler! :


They used to bind their fingers at the hind of my
dress, wiping the cloth clean from mudded musings as
the pipelines of sewers are choking this mind, while
it drinks rotten milk -- poured in some wee -- veiled in musk.

They used to reach for my lips and yell that my scabs
are armours made by the fervour persevering
to sustain beauty and that enduring the stark stabs
was leaving Min’luv without ingrained-doublethink

They used to comb my frizzes and called them yarn strings
crocheting spinning ballerinas that drizzles
songs to the wind. They are cursive marbles shining
as its smooth cracks are caressed by toothed chisels.

they had become oracles of my weather, till
I spoke Newspeak before thoughts became “on the quill.”


Spoiler! :

OH MY GOODNESS i forgot to reply once again, @Liminality. AHH thank u sm for your interpretation! Relieved to know that I got to relay the message the way that I wanted to.

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Tue Apr 13, 2021 2:05 pm
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kattee says...



free verse: p o p p y


Image

Spoiler! :

Let them remain in my memory
as I rest in these poppies that eagerly
cradle my withering limbs, lapping me
with petals as I set myself on the soil.

Their stems will hide me from Al and Bee
for I may give in and shed their skin,
that’ll scatter into pollen grains,
meandering like dandelions
with lesser grace — through the wind that drives
to the distant, foreign town of nowhere.

(She needs to doze off till the rain comes
because its stream is her only vaccine —
the only remedy to this malady.
Its downpour’s not an elegy of the clouds
to the sun, but an ode to the ground,
as they endure the acrostic blooming


— as the fiery book dangles its pages
over the growing weeds dressed in
Pink petals with
Ornaments of green buds
Pursuing the
Persecuted as they slowly sap out their
Youth—


by eroding everything around it)


Spoiler! :

The illustration’s a bit too rushed : (((( but I can’t wait to start the next chapter AHHHH (so ecstatic to write a villanelle!!), although this will probly be massively edited when I come back to this project lol

++ the waterfall is smaller than the Spenserian sonnet skskskskskk image size is so difficult to deal with since i made this whole thing wider ofwjifeiofoafeijwaofjeoa
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Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:08 pm
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Liminality says...



Hi kattee! I am loving the dark atmosphere and vibes the end of this chapter has. When I realised the image of the waterfall connected between the Spenserian sonnet and 'poppy', I was like \(@u@)/ !!!

Spoiler! :
The reference to the Ministry of Love and 1984 in general adds a whole layer of nuance to the character of the speaker and their relationship to Alpha and Beth. I already got the sense from previous poems that it wasn't a 'typical' friendship and that maybe there was underlying problems there, but here comparing them to Min'Luv is like? A whole other turn, somehow, especially in the line "They used to comb my frizzes and called them yarn strings". I kind of interpreted this as 1. some kind of enforced positivity vibe going on and also 2. exerting control over the speaker?

I also loved the imagery and symbolism of poppy flowers in your free verse poem! One of my favourites was the personification of poppies "cradling" the speaker, which adds to the sense that the speaker is being 'consumed' somehow. I also interpreted the illustration of the speaker falling down into the water that way, and then linking back to the wasp from the earlier poems?? Is such a nice parallelism? It seems to convey how the speaker has been "eroded", at least, the way I read it. Great work as always, kattee <3
she/her

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Fri Apr 16, 2021 10:15 pm
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kattee says...



chapter 2: where does the fallen petal go from here?


Image
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Fri Apr 16, 2021 10:29 pm
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kattee says...



Spoiler! :
@Liminality AHH Thank you for your comment!! And lol I choked at the /@u@)/ ANd I’m happy to know that the connection is at least noticeable! although, I’ll probly do some major editing months from now because I wanted the waterfall to seemingly connect to the sewage (from the exp poetry) SKSKSKSK the art style change might’ve made it confusing AHH KSKS It’s so hard to draw in a similar style since it always depends on my mood 💀💀 i know i need to fix that but it’s just so difficult

And Ahh thank u again for your interpretation and thoughts <3 <3 (it’s honestly what motivated me to push through chapter 2 because I may or may not have been procrastinating)
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Reviews: 81
Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:16 pm
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kattee says...



epigraph: the rain never came


please increase your phone or laptop’s brightness to see the last illus clearly

Image
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Image

Spoiler! :

Transcript:

orange’s a sweeper, but with paint brushes instead
of broomsticks. it’s smearing green out of the landscape:
“the spoiling foliage, the algae of october.”

it was a meadow from van gogh’s memory,
a panoramic dream of sunflowers with
ears sheared one by one, by wheezing winds.

(but no painting could live without the blue
at midnight. the messenger called out for a
reflection, but the answer was refracted for
they summoned s(teal)ers, shaped like
gargoyles. they are caricatures of
rosalia beetles, with little legs that carry
the weight of trunks. their antennae
morphed into pomegranates punished
by persephone.

they prattled like vikings waging a war they
know they’ll lose. each mouth is a
gjallarhorn and each word is lost
in the nine realms -- just like their flight,
drifting as their destination’s determined
by a golden helmet helmed by a
wistful witch. so. until the real call comes,
they were paid to play in a poppy field.)


orange staggers and trips
this season, bumping on
maple spades that spears
its already bleeding skin. It
tiptoed through e a c h
crevices, counting e v e r y ears
b (1 ear)
e (17 ears)
f (34 ears)
o ((68 ears))
r ((69 ears))
e ((((70 ears))))
setting foot on the poppies that
devour sunflowers, that showers
the canvas with carcasses and
mashed wasps. it waited

but the Rain never came.
and the painting sprayed graffiti
on the echoes all over the terrain
as bellowing monkeys
cross-hatched their pleas in a cage.


everything, but the poppies,
everything, even orange,
wilted into clay.

(alas, the monkeys arrived
unaware of the life contrived
by this genocide

and stole a wasp
that once belonged to a beehive)


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542 Reviews



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Points: 41664
Reviews: 542
Sun May 02, 2021 3:06 pm
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Liminality says...



Hiya again @kattee! I can barely believe NaPo is over either! It's been wonderful being NaPo buds with you and I'm so eager to read any poetic/ visual art works you come up with throughout the year as well <33 Here are my thoughts on this recent poem:

Spoiler! :

This recent poem has this distance to it, like a tone that's detached, which I feel makes sense with the fable/myth motifs you have throughout. It seems to

I love the wordplay in "the messenger called out for a reflection . . . the answer was refracted". It gives a sense of distortion, as if someone is trying to find something but that something is elusive. The odd, almost grotesque modifications to the "beetles" are also really striking, especially when combined with the visuals.

"they were paid to play in a poppy field" I thought called back to the simile "like vikings waging a war they know they'll lose", which makes me think of fate.

"each mouth and gjallarhorn" I also thought was interesting. I looked it up, and read that a gjallarhorn is both a musical instrument and something you drink out of? So matching it with "mouth" seems fitting somehow.

"the poppies that devour sunflowers" feels a bit like death imagery, since I think poppies tend to be associated with death whereas sunflowers more so with life and hope? At least, those are the connotations I have with them.

The way you brought it all back to "mashed wasps" also felt so natural!

AH the last picture where it all fits together is splendid. The visuals for this part are expressive, passionate and definitely vision-like, matching the 'oracle' motif. I also love that you wrote the 'oracle of my weather . . .' bit in lettering that looks carved, since this is an epigraph.

Overall, this poem was hauntingly dream-like but also tragic in a very grounded way. The sense of inevitability around what happens to the wasp came across strongly to me.
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Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
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