An Open Letter to My Body

Hey! This was a really interesting kinda of poem. It was open about what the writer did in the past and acknowledges the fact that it left their body sore and in pain. It showed the more insecure side of the writer and it gave a raw emotion that I could understand perfectly. It really was a sweet poem and it had sort of a nice way of flowing. It could have been longer and a tad bit more descriptive but it was still a fantastic poem. I connected with the author as someone who was/still is insecure about their body and the author has come to the realization that everything about themselves is perfect. It was a nice poem and it was a wonderful example of how when you get pushed down you can always get back up. It was a sad but uplifting poem, because it shared memories of when the author tried to be the normal and the author tried to be beautiful by society's standards. But society's standards are so obscure and sometimes quite impossible that some feel as if they are not good enough. Now I understand that some companies (like Dove) are making sure that every girl, no matter her body type, feels welcomed and loved. For years society's standards have changed leaving girls who might have been the society's perfect in the past but now are left discouraged and upset. In everybody's lives at one point there will be a time when you don't like your body and normally it takes a lot of reassurance and love to finally understand that you are beautiful just the way you are. And I know it sounds cheesy and cliche but it's true. This was a sweet poem and I love it. Thank you for this. It was truly relatable for many people and it shows of how twisted the world can be sometimes for letting people actually believe they are not worthy or not normal. Keep writing. <3

Sarh24

Hi there!

I understand this is an old poem, but I decided to review it because it must be relatable for many, many people. At some point, everyone thinks their body is ugly or imperfect, and hopefully most of us do reach this stage when we can proudly say that we're perfect the way we are.
I love how this poem is set in a period after reaching that stage, but also conveys the feelings of the narrator before that stage. It really shows the change in attitude very well, and I do believe that's part of what you were aiming for.

I can't say that the imagery is particularly good, because even though you're writing about things we all see regularly, and that we all can easily picture, I didn't particularly picture anything when reading this. I'm not sure exactly why that happened, because most poems always make me picture something or the other in my head. The overall writing was good, so I have no idea why the imagery is lacking, at least for me.

The other negative is related to the flow. While the overall flow of the poem is nice, the repetitive 'You're perfect' at the end of each paragraph bothers me a bit. I'm all for repetition and the effect it provides, but in this particular case it seems like it's way too simple. It does convey what you want to say very well, but I feel like you could add a few more words there, maybe?

I'm afraid I haven't provided much constructive criticism there, but at least I've pointed out a few things that I felt were negative.

A few lines I really enjoyed were:
Dear legs, thank you for holding me upright.
Because this is something we seldom say enough, and rarely think about, that it is our legs, primarily, that help us stay up.

Dear stomach, thank you for being so soft and comforting.
I liked this line because I actually could picture that, so good imagery in this one.

Dear face, thank you for smiling and showing the world who I am.
This is a beautiful choice of words. Good job.

Your writing style is much appreciated, simple, uncluttered, and conveys the message very well.

Overall, a very good poem with a good meaning, style, and flow. Could use a little work on the imagery though. I really enjoyed reading this.


Sadie

Hi there! Good to see a new work from you c:

Let's start with the nitpicks. You may need to grab a new screenshot of the poem if you decide to implement these changes.
- remove the red line under "pushups". It obviously wasn't meant to be there and it's distracting, plus it ruins the overall uniform appearance of the poem
- remove the comma before "and giving me speed" in the first line of the poem
- in the second paragraph, I would change "cause" to "because"
- in the third paragraph, avoid saying "thank you" so much. You should only say it once to get the point across. Repetition is unnecessary here.
- in the last paragraph, I would swap "powder" and "liquid", because you apply foundation before setting with powder and it's all just a matter of being consistent

Now onto my personal opinion. I liked this poem and I liked the message of having a positive body image. Right away, I expected this to be a negative piece because that's what seems to be the trend lately, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that this wasn't the case. However, I'm not too happy with some parts of this.

Most importantly is the last paragraph, when the narrator is apologizing to their face for wearing makeup. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing makeup and I feel that apologizing for wearing it is defeating the purpose of self-acceptance. Much like tattoos and piercings, makeup is a personal preference and it doesn't mean you don't like the way your body was before. It just means that you want to enhance your features and further appreciate them. Again, this is all personal but I feel that that paragraph ruined the positivity for me. I don't wear makeup because I think my natural face is ugly; in fact, sometimes I go out without makeup just because I'm too lazy to put some on, while still thinking I look good. Makeup is a form of empowerment. I recommend revising that part, but that's up to you. Makeup shouldn't make you feel like your natural face isn't good enough, but rather that you're enhancing it and further defining your best features.

My other issue was with the paragraph regarding handwriting. There's nothing wrong with working to improve your handwriting. Some people have sloppy handwriting (yours truly!) and you aren't any less significant for noticing this flaw and trying to fix it. Because it's something you can fix and something that doesn't really define your self-importance, anyways. It's just handwriting and if you don't want to improve it, then sure, that's fine, but if you do, then that's great too! It just means you will be more pleased with whatever you've handwritten. I know I would love to have better handwriting, so it's more legible and doesn't make my professors' eyes hurt! Just a suggestion to consider tweaking that part.

But like I said, I love the overall positivity to this piece. I'm not so big on the repetition of "you're perfect" at the end of every paragraph, because I feel that it loses importance as time goes on. It would've been better had you saved that part for the end; maybe in a paragraph addressed to your body as a whole and just thanking it for everything it does? Think about it. I liked everything else, though! Great job with this piece hope this helped!

~Iggy

Hello it's just me hipstersquid writing another poetry review. I enjoyed the story behind this one. I relate to the hating of natural flaws. This shows how we as a society need to start loving our body. We only get one body so we need to start loving and enjoying it while we have it.

I also enjoyed the letter type of approach it added more meaning to it in my opinion. I don't really have much more to say because it was truly that good. Thank you so much for sharing this with YWS! I am most definitely interested in reading more of your writings.