Hi Nicholas, and nice to e-meet you,
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Anyway, I'm interested in the thoughts of people who've been at this for a while. Where do I go? What do I do? Are there any resources out there for a person like me, or am I squarely in uncharted territory, mapping my own course? Do you think there is value in critique, or any other practice?
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I think it depends what you're looking for. I came here, to the Sphere, to work on my ability to use metrics and rhythm and I can't think of a better place to have landed. The level of expertise on this site, in my opinion, is extraordinary for something so wholly free, and there are enough skilled poets writing in varied styles here to ensure that a range of perspectives are presented.
But that also means that the voices here are able to critically articulate and defend their opinions, so it's probably not for the faint-hearted, or for people who just want empty back-slaps/praise and can't ignore negative critique and stick to their creative guns if they do receive comments they disagree with. Also, every community, however diverse, tends to create a kind of common ground for itself, although to be fair I’m struggling to think of something so outre that the Sphere wouldn’t be interested in it. Maybe very, very ‘greeting card’ stuff laden with abstractions and archaisms might get some critical eyebrows raised.
I find the dialogue here very useful. I struggle working in a vacuum and need conversation to work out where to go next with my work. I find it valuable to critique people’s writing, particularly when their poems are difficult to critique because I find them strong. It’s helped my practice to look closely at the poems produced by people posting on here.
Good Luck with leaping that gate to the next phase of your writing journey!
Sarah-Jane