Paperweight

I am a Paper Girl,
(The flimsy, blue-lined notebook variety).
My skin is scrawled with sooty black ink,
And sooty black ink runs through my veins.

I have a Paper Heart,
Little pink construction paper heart
(Like a kindergartner's valentine),
The motion of a pen, my pulse.

I have a Paper World
That I like to escape to:
Similes and syntax in
Lopsided scrawl.

So be my Paperweight,
And anchor me down,
Or I'll blow away
On a wind of clichés.

Comments & reviews · 16
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Wolf
Review
Wolf wrote a review · Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:16 am

zomg.
That was so good! I don't have anything even remotely constructive to say...:(
I really liked how you told the reader what kind of paper it was (The kindergartener's valentine, etc)
That was amazing!
Yours truly, eat a banana today,
Camille

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Audy
Review
Audy wrote a review · Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:58 am

Ha! I loved this, it was cute. Especially the be my paperweight part that was lovely and unexpected. For some reason when I read this, the song "I'm a Barbie Girl" was playing in my head... :shock: :? Don't ask, I still don't know how my mind works.

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Fireweed
Comment

I've sent this in to a magazine... still waiting to hear back.

Thank you all again for the crits! ^_^

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Areida
Comment

Woo, cool, you took my suggestion! But I have a fixation with parentheses, so I may not be the best judge for that one. :P I do think the stanza breaks make a big difference, though.

I like this poem. :)

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Fireweed
Comment

Thanks. It's weird, in any other genre of writing punctuation isn't usually a problem for me, but I have issues with punctuating poetry.

Ari, I think the parenthesis and spaces between the stanzas made all the difference visually. ^_^

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Areida
Review
Areida wrote a review · Sun Jul 22, 2007 4:53 am

This was really neat!

I thought the simplicity worked well. You were succinct (which I can always appreciate) but used your adjectives very well.

The only thing I could really say that you might want to improve would be the punctuation. I struggle with this too, though, so take all these comments with a grain of salt. ;) Reading through, though, I thought some parentheses might work well.


I am a Paper Girl
(The flimsy, blue-lined notebook variety).
My skin is scrawled with sooty black ink,
And sooty black ink runs through my veins.

I have a Paper Heart,
Little pink construction paper heart
(Like a kindergartner's valentine),
The motion of a pen, my pulse.

I have a Paper World
That I like to escape to:
Similes and syntax in
Lopsided scrawl.

So be my Paperweight,
And anchor me down,
Or I'll blow away
On a wind of clichés.


Overall, though, I really liked it! Thanks for the read! :D

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Leja
Review
Leja wrote a review · Sun Jul 22, 2007 4:36 am

I think you should hold off with the commas at the end of every line; they're distracting and often unnecessary. I also think it would be lovely were you to begin a new stanza when you begin a new sentence in this instance. Though neither of these points are terribly important.

I thought it was lovely on whole; I especially liked the end of it, as it wasn't anticlimactic (because that happens too often). So now, I have nothing left but more nitpicks. Visually, it is a little strange. At the beginning the lines are longer, at the end, the lines are shorter. Did your thought process change halfway through?

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Flemzo
Review
Flemzo wrote a review · Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:32 am

It was well written, but not my cup of tea (whatever that means). I loved the irony at the end about the clichés.

I don't know if you meant for that to be ironic, seeing as most poetry is clichés and metaphors, but it certainly brought a smile to my face.

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Fireweed
Comment

'Tis edited.

Thanks, everyone!

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xanthan gum
Review

And my skin is scrawled with sooty black ink
And sooty black ink runs through my veins.

Lots of "and"s to start off lines makes it seems sort of like a list in my opinion. Just say it, don't lead into it.

I have a Paper Heart,
[s]A[/s] little pink construction paper heart
Like a kindergartner's valentine,
[s]And[/s] the motion of a pen, [s]is[/s] my pulse.

Just some suggestions of style.

I really like this simplistic piece.

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Fand
Review
Fand wrote a review · Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:03 pm

I agree; this is really a well-done little poem. ^^ The one thing that really put me off, though, is the spacing; why is there an empty line between each? It's distracting and does the poem no favors. Otherwise, I like it, and the edits that I can see you've made, based on others' reviews, are wonderful. ^^

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Jasmine Hart
Review

I liked it. The theme was fresh and interesting. I'd get rid of the "my" before "lopsided scrawl". I'm really not sure about teh last three lines, they seem a little weak. If they were to stay, and change the second last line to "and anchor me down", for the sake of rhythm, and then I'd get rid of the word "right" and break that line into two:

"Or I'll blow away
On a wind of cliches"
(sorry, I can't do the accent).

Other than that, your descriptions and imagery were vivid and effective, adn I enjoyed your use of colour. You also had some good alliteration ("Pen is my pulse", "similes and syntax", and I felt that your tone suited the theme perfectly.

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Rydia
Review
Rydia wrote a review · Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:45 am

I really liked this and I'm a down to Earth sort of girl so if you still need that paper weight I'm right here. I love the imagery of the paper heart and your simplistic style. Also, the ending made me smile so keep up the good work and sorry I couldn't be more helpful but I think the others caught the mistakes.

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Fireweed
Comment

Lol, whoops. Je n'aime pas... accents :? .

Thanks alot!

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Emerson
Comment

I liked it! The only thing I have to nit pick on [I don't know if snoink said it?] is the spacing in between each lines and the last line. The last line and repetition of cliché didn't work for me.

And yes, your accent mark went the wrong way =/

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Snoink
Review
Snoink wrote a review · Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:32 am

Oooo... I liked this. It was simplistic, yet not simple, which is very good and I like your use of adjectives.

Fireweed wrote:Like a Kindergartner's valentine,


I don't think you should capitalize "Kindergartner's" in this line, mostly because it draws too much attention to that word and there are so many other words to pay attention too.

And the motion of a pen is my heartthrob.


Perhaps a different word than motion? It seems too mechanical that way, and I think you can make it better by choosing a more fluid word. Also, for "heartthrob," I would replace it with "pulse" because there are so many more connotations to associate with "pulse" that cannot be taken with the word "heartthrob."

I have a Paper World

That I like to escape to,

Similes and syntax in

My lopsided scrawl.


I love these lines.

Or I'll blow right away on a wind of clichès,

Show me the way 'cause I'm a living clichè.


First of all, it should be spelled as "clichés" or "cliché," with the "é." Just a little thing. Next, I don't like the last line. I think it would be much stronger without it.

Still, this is one of the best poems about writing and writers that I've seen for a while, and I applaud you for it! :)



Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
— Helen Keller