[Terry McDermott]

My thinking is much like Michael. I have poems that start strong and wither. Or just seem lose their way somehow. However, I really wouldn't want to ask someone to come up with a long explanation of where a poem could go. I think the poet should try to focus on the malfunction, what she's hoping to do - in response I wouldn't expect anything more than a some quick hit ideas, ideas to break the logjam, help the writer think in a different direction. Brainstorming.

If you all think it's a worthwhile idea, I think it should be as easy and quick to use as possible. Real criticism should be reserved for the usual forums.

Terry

[David Rosenthal]

Originally Posted by Terry McDermott

well not really suck.
I'm wondering if there's ever been thought to creating a forum for poems that the writer has become blocked on but wants to continue. A forum for some fresh ideas and perspectives when the poem is in trouble and the poet realizes it but can't figure out what to do. So the crits wouldn't be crits as much fresh directions or angles on how to fix a poem on life support.

Or could a person just add a disclaimer when posting a poem.

Terry

I thought that's what our current workshop forums were were for. If I wasn't stuck and wondering what to do, I wouldn't post. I mean, yeah, there are degrees of "stuck." Sometimes I feel finished, but I have worked a thing so long I need "objective" eyes look it over. But just as often I have a piece that just feels like a mess but I feel like there might be something in it somewhere, so I put up the latest draft and see what happens. In both cases the results have never failed to be helpful. Gee...I guess I may be using the forms incorrectly sometimes...?

David R.

[Maryann Corbett]

Alex is the one who will have to decide whether there's actually a call for a new forum, and how we tell whether there is.

Creating new boards is something we've certainly done before, but there is some work involved. How would we test whether there's enough critical mass to warrant this without doing all the work up front? Can we drum up the additional staff? We've already got several boards that are too quiet for too long.

Those are my reasons for disfavoring the whole-new-board solution.

[Shaun J. Russell]

Well, I'm kind of with Michael (et al.) on this. My biggest problem has been determining what level my poems should be at before I workshop them here, and I seem to guess wrong more often than not... I figure that work one is completely happy with shouldn't be posted, even though there is always value in getting other perspectives. By that same token, work that one thinks is not very good shouldn't be posted either, for obvious reasons. But work that has a spark in it, but needs a lot of coaxing...well, maybe there's merit to the idea of a forum for that kind of work. I know that I, for one, have a shoebox full of those!

[David Rosenthal]

Originally Posted by E. Shaun Russell

Well, I'm kind of with Michael (et al.) on this. My biggest problem has been determining what level my poems should be at before I workshop them here, and I seem to guess wrong more often than not... I figure that work one is completely happy with shouldn't be posted, even though there is always value in getting other perspectives. By that same token, work that one thinks is not very good shouldn't be posted either, for obvious reasons. But work that has a spark in it, but needs a lot of coaxing...well, maybe there's merit to the idea of a forum for that kind of work. I know that I, for one, have a shoebox full of those!

For me, I think there can be a fine line between "work that one thinks is not very good" and "work that has a spark in it, but needs a lot of coaxing."

David R.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Gee...I guess I may be using the forms incorrectly sometimes...?

David R.

Gee, me too.

Seriously, I cannot figure out what kind of intensive care is lacking in the forums we have. We give Tough Love on promising but awful texts, we put support bandages on slipped metrics, we give plastic toys and jokes when a shot hurts a lot, and gold stars on your discharge when the poem is real good.

We have Bitter Medicine. And sometimes a well-meaning critter will give you sugar-coated pills.

[Skip Dewahl]

Originally Posted by Janice D. Soderling

Cross-posted with Orwn.

Marion, thank you for your encouragement. I can always count on you to recognize when a bad poem is good. Why did that fun thread have to end?

Michael. I'm Janice. You usually say such smart things, and I usually understand immediately how smart they are, so I am perplexed why I don't get the wisdom of what you are saying now. Besides which I am not very good at math and I am wondering which Moderator Designate is going to keep track of eligibility and infractions. But don't let me discourage you, on second thought, do let me discourage you.

Skip. Good thinking and I will keep Dream at Daybreak in mind as an alternative title (or possibly Daybreak Dream, or Dreamday Break.

Actually I was thinking about calling it Flarf Barf.

Come on, let's work on it:


Workshop poets spurn the bums' mattresses
Outside, passenger planes again disgorge
the trapped of bad mood, hog-sounds,
read-wroth:

God, what an airy translator
with her empty doggerel stunt,
comes over like eye-dreck refuse
written in surly-skewed letters,
that the fans feel her anguish in kind.

let's drown the old bore,
or gang-haul through window:
grant light from darkness

[Janice D. Soderling]

My bad, for misleading you, Skip. But Terry has put up a serious request for a serious discussion and his thread is being high-jacked.

Mea culpa. My apologies for being frivolous and leading members astray.

[Skip Dewahl]

No, no, you are one of the nicest multifaceted ladies on this board. I was just bored with nothing to contribute, and when I give in to that feeling, I get silly and reckless.
Why everyone hasn't finally banded together to protest my inadequacies, is either because I stay away long enough not to bother with, or, like you, the members are just too nice for such drastic remedial action.

[Julie Steiner]

A forum for some fresh ideas and perspectives when the poem is in trouble and the poet realizes it but can't figure out what to do.

I don't think I've ever posted anything BUT this type of poem, on either TDE or Metrical. For the most part, I've been pretty happy with the intensive care received there.