E - Everyone

A Means of Writing Stupid Love Stories that Sell

by StoryWeaver13
  • March 18, 2013
  • Poetry
  • Culture
  • Poetry A.D.
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I started stacking journals on the shelves.
 
I was never much of a writer, more of a critic –
I hated love stories and loathed their flawed
portrayals, loathed the funny sway
of southern slang and syntax errors,
with little broken lovesick smiles
wearing at the dog-eared pages
until they tore me to bits.
 
No, I started selling journals instead.
 
They were old, dating back
to when I was still trying my hand
at cursive, with the smudged-up lines
of a left-handed “genius” (what a laugh,
in retrospect) and confined in a lock-and-key
diary that my mom continuously
pried apart the way doctors pry open chests.
 
It’s funny how sadness sells.
 
Type up a few impulsive words, and rattle out
the words you bit into your demure, dry lips,
and you have the best-seller
that broke your heart a while ago. 
Comments & reviews · 4
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User avatar
MooCowPoop
Review
MooCowPoop wrote a review · Mon Dec 30, 2013 3:06 am

I like this poem. My favorite line is: "It's funny how sadness sells", because that's very true about, well, pretty much everything nowadays. There always has to be something sad that happens in things like romance novels otherwise no one will think twice about buying the book. There always has to be a sad problem on television shows, including the funny ones, in order to get more views. Why can't we just be happy and stay happy and not make everything so complicated--

Is a question every person asks ever but yet to be answered.

Excuse the rant. That's the reaction I got from this poem. Good poem, good poem. :)

User avatar
Rook
Review
Rook wrote a review · Sun Dec 29, 2013 4:49 am

Hello!

This was a really wonderful poem. I really love it.
At first when you mentioned "journals," I though you meant like a magazine or a political journal or something. I didn't realize that you meant diary until you started talking about cursive. Maybe clarifying this earlier on would be better.

I love your descriptions and images. they are just perfect. Especially when you were describing the love stories and the journals. The reader can really relate to those descriptions.

I'm kind of confused at where this poem is taking place. At first I thought it was a normal bookstore, but one wouldn't be selling journals at a bookstore like that. Maybe at a second-hand bookstore. If you could clarify that too, that would be more to-the-point.

The last stanza confused me a bit, but the last two lines were wonderful. I guess I was just confused about the first two lines in the last stanza. I don't know what to tell you about those lines: maybe they don't need fixing at all.

I really really love everything else. The idea of selling journals and them becoming best sellers... It's genius. ^^

Thanks for publishing this. I really liked it. Keep writing!
~fortis

User avatar
Swarnima
Review
Swarnima wrote a review · Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:34 am

hi ..so here's my review.:)
I loved how you separated the lines you wanted to emphasize upon. But I did not like the format you used in the paragraphs,it would be preferable if you do not continue your sentences in your next line.
anyway that's all. My favourite part were the last lines of the poem, they were the perfect end...
Great job! Loved it...

User avatar
BiancaLU
Comment
BiancaLU commented · Tue Mar 19, 2013 4:03 am

Hi there, StoryWeaver! :)

I like your poetry piece, quite interesting. I enjoyed reading it. And love your use of words. Great work!!

Don't forget that in a poem, each line should begin with a capital letter.

- Bianca



“All stories are true," Skarpi said. "But this one really happened, if that's what you mean.”
— Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind