Unrefined

by speakerskat

Published May 25, 2017

E - Everyone

In poetry

I always wanted a pen

one of those nice ones

probably, made of wood

inscribed with my full name

adorned with a simple feather

fluttering across my words.

.

But, the best works

the works that breathe

that have a life and a heart

a mind of their own

are those scrawled upon

a dirty napkin

in sloppy font

probably, in an ugly green

crayola crayon

stolen from a kids menu.

.

The best works are

painted onto tear stained paper

with clumpy, runny mascara

and sprinkled with broken dreams.

.

The best works

hit us hard

right where it hurts

right when it hurts

because art makes no sense

and like life

it's beautiful

at it's most unrefined.

Comments & reviews · 2
User avatar
Catalyst
Review
Catalyst wrote a review Review · May 25, 2017

Hey, Catalyst here for a review!

I'll be perfectly honest with you-- I'm usually not much for poetry. I dip my feet in from time to time, but when it comes to reviewing it, I usually steer clear of these works.
That being said, you're probably among the best poets on this site if this is any
thing to go by.

More than anything I loved the context of this poem-- Not only does it carry a profound message about life and writing, that message is made clear without seeming on the nose. It's there, but not mired in symbolism and "deep" lines. In many ways, the poem itself is unrefined, and that's what I like it for.

So this is a fantastic piece of work-- But that aside, I do have a few nitpicks.

"probably, made of wood"

This line seems... off. Maybe it's the structure, maybe it's how it doesn't exactly fit with the preceding sentence. I'd replace it with something like this.
"Made of wood, perhaps",
This would emphasise the speaker day-dreaming over the pen, instead of just sort of idly speculating, as the original line implies.

"probably, in an ugly green"

Nothing inherently wrong with this line, just the repetition stood out to me. Intentional, perhaps-- I wouldn't know.

"and sprinkled with broken dreams."

This line just seems a little too overt, a little too un-subtle. It took me out of the poem a bit.

Overall-- Fantastic work, keep it up and tag me for your next poem!

User avatar
DragonNoir
Review
DragonNoir wrote a review Review · May 25, 2017

Hello! DragonNoir here for a review!

I really like your poem! It's very effective with the theme and structure you used and the concept too. However, you did make a few mistakes on the way. Don't despair! Everyone makes mistakes!
Firstly, you always start a stanza with a capital letter, but you don't start a new line with a capital. A poem requires this, at least from what I've been taught. Secondly, I think you made a spelling mistake on the last line, which could count as two mistakes, because the last line is supposed to hit the reader the hardest; having a spelling mistake lessens this effect majorly. The mistake you made was with the apostrophe in "it's", when I believe it's supposed to be 'its'. You only use "it's" when you are using it as a contraction of "it is", while "its" is used as a possessive pronoun.
On a more positive note, I really like the contrast you make with starting a very sophisticated notion and moving on to ones which are more basic and almost 'lower class'.

Overall, I'd say this is an amazing piece of poetry, but you could work on capital letters and "its" and "it's".
I hope my review helped! :)

Capitalizing each line is not required, most if not all punctuation and syntax choices are the artists choice in non-formal poetry.



Some call me a legacy, others call me a hero. But I assure you, dear admirers, I am only human.
— Persistence