[Nick McRae]

Hi Trevor,

You've gotten some good comments that I agree with for the most part. The poem is well executed, just not overly differentiated. Which is pretty common.

If you were trying to sell a poetry book to someone who'd read hundreds of poets, what about your poetry would interest them, and not just fall into the fray of thousands of other poets? Finding the intersection between originality and your personal style/personality is what you want to aim for in the long run. What is your particular bent on poetry? When you dig into your passion for writing, what kind of art do you want to create? That's the target, IMO, and not just executing well.

In my experience there are generally a few ways to differentiate, exceptional and original use of imagery (writing a stunning poem), doing something interesting with the language or structure of the poem, wisdom, or a combination of these elements. My take is that the goal is to figure out what you want to do with your writing that's a little outside the norm. Once someone who's seen it all gets a kick out of your poetry, you'll have hit the target.

Hope that helps