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Young Writers Society



nine reasons a writer will never love you (back)

by alias


o.
there are nine reasons why a writer will never love you (back)

and this is one of them.

 

i.

we've never said exactly what we've meant -

and we know it is useless

to start now.

instead we scatter g a_p...s in our

tongues, like punctuation

we expect you to read between the thoughts

you're not good enough if you can't

hear our meants



ii.

we will always love a strand of music

a quote, or a word

more than we love you; Ludricrous, 

Pachyderm, Visceral, Didactic, Aphonia

so when push comes to shove

we will gladly break our hearts.

so we can write about you,

instead of the alternatives
 


iii.

we know ourselves very well

and you do not

you are a lengthly investment and 

probably, 

aren't worth the effort

(we have imagined this before)

(we have worded it before)

we know better

(now.)



iv.

when we say we love you

we will mean something

very different,

to you

the difference could kill us daily

so we won't even try to say it - 

(this is not mutual)



v.

we are brats, and selfish and

being artistic is leave to

claw out of our lives.

would you trust us with your life?

what about the lives of your friends and family?

what if we throw a bottle of our latest addiction

e.g alcohol, emotional abuse, depression,

pain, hate, wrath

at our children. there's a reason 

we are a hypothetical...



vi.

you will never make us feel less

(impending)a(crushing)l(burning)o(draining)n(hurting)e(inevitable)

but we will make you feel exactly

precisely, 

like us.

worthless.



vii.

we are animal people

flashes of the wild, and feral; elusive

attractive

and you are drawn to this,

like a pair of grabby hands to a zoo

to petting a declawed tiger

exotic. we don't live long in cages.



viii.

we will never tell you

we won't love you

and you will try to ignore it

but we want you to love us

and we want to love you

(we know better, which

makes this all the better a crime)



ix.

you might be able to give us love, but 

all we will give you is something that doesn't make sense


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Sat Jan 12, 2013 12:07 am
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Cailey wrote a review...



Hm, I like this. I was drawn in by the title, which made me imensely curious. (I spelled that wrong. Hm. Immensly? Well, very curious.)
Then, I was kind of put off by the shaky rhytm. Most of this doesn't flow very well, so that made it hard to read.
Then again, I saw that maybe it was on purpose, since this could be written by someone who is suffered because they're trying to figure out why they can't love. Maybe the unlucky girl/guy just had an argument or something, so it would be choppy.
Once I got to actually just reading this and ignoring the flow, I loved it. It made me laugh, and there were definitely parts of this that I can agree with and have experienced.
Overall, this was nice, and a very interesting topic to read. I liked it. Of course, if you didn't mean to make it sound choppy, that is definitely something you should work on. I think I caught some typos in there, too.




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Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:20 am
ClaireBear says...



Hmmm...thought it was good. You're quite the talented poet. The numbering thing was unexpected and a fresh new way of doing it. However the poem made writers sou.d slightly....odd. Not all writers are addicted(except maybe to writing) :) Jk. Another small problem is that its hard to understand but hey! Who really understands Shakespeare? Haha your writing is not QUITE on that level but still good. Keep up with the writing!




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Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:16 pm
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Nyl wrote a review...



I never encountered poem of this kind before, the numbered listing-style captured my attention as if this was written by an article writer (like me). Firstly, I love this part;

"

we know ourselves very well

and you do not

you are a lengthly investment and

probably,

aren't worth the effort

(we have imagined this before)

(we have worded it before)

we know better

"

Simply because you perfectly pictured out what majority of us are.

NOW My verdict for the entire poem.

I had to re-read this before I could figure out the sense of the verses. End up that the message of this piece is made to introduce the traits of most of "us." Well done. :)




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Tue Jan 08, 2013 12:17 am
Siobhanoshea wrote a review...



Something about this is fascinating. It's hard for me to focus on your specific word choices and give criticism because I am totally absorbed reading it. Grabbed all of me. Very well done.




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Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:35 pm
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Ary wrote a review...



There's something about this poem that attracts my attention, besides the title, the way you explain the reasons of a writer for never loving someone back. Let me explain myself better. You give us a sort of unexpected, more darker side of a writer and to me that is quite fascinating and I believe it might be true in certain points. This poem reminded me of a saying by Elbert Hubbard, quote: "He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words". I'll tell you why, the first reason explains this quote easily to me at least. Overall, this poem is quite lovely and to tell you the truth if they told me to choose between writing and love I would pick writing.
Btw, Welcome to YWS :)




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Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:33 pm
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eldEr wrote a review...



Hey there, Alias! Isha here to review~

Well, this is a slightly intimidating piece to any non-writer who wishes to fall in love with someone who does write. And judging by the fact that it's rather well-done, I'm almost a little worried for any poor, non-writing souls who stumble across it and assume it true for every single one of us (which is, by the way, a compliment). c;

Now, your first two lines.

there are nine reasons why a writer will never love you (back)

and this is one of them.


Overall, I did not like them. At all. It sounded amateur, a little bit clunky, and... almost unnecessary, though I don't feel completely comfortable using that term. The poem would have been fine without it altogether, in my opinion (but it's your poem, so if you think otherwise, then pay me no mind).

Now, I bolded the "(back)". That is part of why these first couple lines came across as cluttered to me, I think. It needs to be there even less than the rest of the first stanza does.

It just didn't flow for me. It took a lot away from the poem, after reading those two lines- felt less... like a punch, and more like a, "this is what the entire poem is about please enjoy." I don't like that in poetry. At all.

And then once that was said and done, it progressively got better. Your first stanza was a little meh, a tad on the boring side, but stanza two is where I started to enjoy it.

The flow was excellent- it read easy, and it still made you think. Your word choice was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself, and from then on, I really have very little to say in the form of nit-picking or negativity.

Now, stanza six. Stanza six is probably my favourite. The second line:

(impending)a(crushing)l(burning)o(draining)n(hurting)e(inevitable)


Ha. Yes. Okay, I like that. I like that a lot. And maybe it's just me, but despite a rather large number of words being shoved between the letters of 'alone,' it still flowed. Props, for that. And then the entire rest of the stanza was pretty much fabulous.

The only other negative thing that I want to talk about is your ending. It wasn't bad- certainly not bad, but it had that same flow issue in a much, much milder form, and just the last line. It also seemed to be significantly less interesting than the stanzas before it, and I almost wish you'd expanded, a little. Worded it a little more creatively, perhaps. It just wasn't the punch that (I like) wanted to see at the end.

Overall, though, excellent work. c:

Don't hesitate to PM me with any questions!

Good job and keep writing,
-Isha




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Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:33 pm
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Alvarin wrote a review...



First of all, welcome to YWS, alias! I'm Alvarin and I'm reviewing today :)
Since you're knew here I'm going to do it thoroughly.

I noticed some minor flaws here and there, so I'll begin with that.

o.
There are nine reasons why a writer will never love you (back),

and this is one of them.

Of course capital letter and punctuation isn't mandatory when it comes to poems, but since you have a dot at the end of that sentence you probably want to begin it with a capital letter and ad a coma at the end of the first line. Either that or remove the dot. By the way, when you write "and this is one of them", are you talking about the following point, or this point? If you're talking about the following you should ad a ":" at the end of it.


i.

We've never said exactly what we've meant -

and we know it is useless

to start now.

Instead we scatter g a_p...s in our

tongues, like punctuation.

We expect you to read between the thoughts (either , or .)

you're not good enough if you can't

hear our meants

Again, punctuation. What do you mean by meants? I would have written "hear what we mean", or something instead.


ii.

we will always love a strand of music

a quote, or a word...

Punctuation, but I'm not going to point it out any more, since I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at. I really liked this paragraph. Very poetical and beautiful.


iii.

...

you are a lengthly investment and

probably aren't worth the effort

...

You're dividing it at bit strangely here, which destroys the flow. I'm not so sure about the parentheses, but it works.


v.

we are brats, and selfish and

being artistic is leave to

claw out of our lives.

This is worded a bit oddly. You should revise this part.
The rest of it was really nice.


vi.

you will never make us feel less

(impending)A(crushing)L(burning)O(draining)N(hurting)E(inevitable)

but we will make you feel exactly

precisely,

like us.

worthless.

Capital letter to make it more visible. Nice paragraph. Deep and with lot of feelings.


Part seven and eight were fantastic, especially part seven. It flowed well (but would get much better with punctuation).


ix.

you might be able to give us love,

but all we will give you is something

that doesn't make sense

I think I would've divided it like this instead, since it flows better.



So, basically you need to work on punctuation. Either you use it or you don't, but if you don't then you should rephrase it so that it flows well without it. Some of the paragraphs were really good, which tells me that the rest of it could be even better and that you as a writer has some real potential. Keep working on this, and you'll have a fantastic poem :)

Keep writing! - Alvarin




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Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:54 pm
Panikos says...



I'm not hot-shot at poetry, so I can hardly offer a proper review; all I can say is that I really liked this, and that it bridged on that wonderful line between understanding and mystery that I love in pieces like this. The subject matter was strange and captivating, your phrasing unusual and delicate, and together it contributed to a somewhat eerie piece that I found very enjoyable. Good job! :D




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Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:22 pm
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Hannah wrote a review...



I am so glad to see you're already dishing out quality reviews in the poetry forum. And I want to welcome you by tackling this big piece of somethin' somethin' you've given us to chew on. I will do my best to do it justice.

The first thing you have to be careful of in a long and spread out list like this is repetition, and I can catch some of that for you right now!

we've never said exactly what we've meant -


when we say we love you

we will mean something

very different,


AND besides those two thoughts, there's a lot of repetition of the word love, which is so vague that it doesn't really mean anything here, especially not when used over and over and over again. You have such concrete stanzas here -- animals, hurtful actions, loneliness -- that mixing it with the other stanzas that try to get at the importance of saying I love you or meaning it or not seem extra empty in comparison. I guess some people would like the rest and balance, but I want you to throw it at me, maybe cause I'm a writer and I want you to rip apart what makes me unlovable, true to your poem.

Be careful in stanza i.!
It feels odd for you to mention gaps in the tongue, because that brings out an absurd physical image that I don't think you wanted to bring into the tone of the poem. Also, the last line might have a typo, 'cause it makes no sense.

Stanza ii. also has a couple typos (maybe just one, but you need to check through carefully so reviews don't get caught on typos and can spend their breath on big-picture critiques instead). Also, the ending doesn't quite make sense to me -- isn't there just ONE alternative to breaking up, and that's staying? That in the breaking up, they can go live all the alternatives and just write about the one thing that's not coming true?

Stanza iii.'s ready to go. It words what you want to say perfectly and is concrete, yet explanatory enough to fit. Stanza iv. does not win any points with me whatsoever. It is way too vague. If there were something we meant instead of "i love you", a hint at that, it might be bearable, but it's just vague and empty as it stands.

v. and vi., too, are very well done, and although vii. is getting at another point that's probably necessary to this poem, it is not well executed. You need to check this stanza, especially, without line breaks and as prose to see the flow of the sentences. It contains basic grammar errors and isn't focused. Neither are the two stanzas that follow, which means this poem ends weakly. Give me more metaphors and less trying to get around the essential vagueness of the word love. Work with strong words, because you can. Don't get bogged down in commonly-accepted ones!

Lemme know if you have questions or comments by sending me a PM or a wall post, 'cause I don't get notifications to the replies to reviews just yet.

Good luck and welcome~ :)





We do have funerals for the living. They're called birthday parties.
— Jill Biden (fictitiously), Hope Never Dies