[Shaun J. Russell]

I suppose it's easy to take things personally here. After all, poems are in most cases an extension of one's person -- whether it's personal emotion, personal experience, personal observation of the human condition etc. But I can't for the life of me understand how someone could be terrified of a poetry critic. I mean no offense by saying so Cally, but what on earth can a person halfway around the world say to you that strikes fear into your heart?

There are many things that Eratosphere is great for. A community of (mostly) formalist poets is a GOOD thing, for the most part. It's encouraging just to know they're there, and a lot of the criticism and support is hugely beneficial to our particular brand of poetry in general. But without Eratosphere, formal poetry would still exist. Likewise, without positive or negative comments leveled at your poems, I would expect that your writing would still continue and evolve, just as it does WITH positive or negative comments. It's fine to be influenced by commentary, but it shouldn't affect the ultimate impetus behind your poems.

I guess I'm just baffled at the notion of "terror" at another's comments, or the need to defend the fact that you now couldn't care less about what Michael Cantor thinks of your poetry. It should be even simpler than that: if you find any value in what someone says, then use that value to your poem's advantage. If you do not find any value / merit in someone's comments, you are under no obligation to incorporate anything in those comments.

Frankly, I've haven't been a fan of all of your poetry. But by no means do I think that your poetry isn't valid, doesn't have merit, or isn't worth reading (or worth your writing, for that matter). The fact that I'm not going to rush to read the next Cally poem shouldn't offend you -- it simply shouldn't matter to you. There will always be people who utterly love your work, just as there will be people who don't really care about it.

Your poem won an anonymous reading among a dozen other poems. Take something from that and build on it.