Whispering Poets

[Dinkleberry2010]

xxxxx

[MorpheusSandman]

I love the sentiment, and while I've been lucky to really not encounter many arrogant elitists with that attitude in real life I'm certainly aware of their existence (maybe I just avoid them for the most part). I do think the piece could use with some trimming; too much is stated and then reiterated without much development.

[Dinkleberry2010]

Thank you for reading it.
I expect to be attacked and labeled an anti-poet and receive e-mails and PMs calling me anti-poetic and having people post messages relaying how offensive they find the poem to be and that I hate poets and in general am a bigot and racist and anti-poetic and a poet-ite and telling me that I owe it to the ones who find the poem offensive to explain the poem. I expect all that.

[MorpheusSandman]

I don't think you'll get it. I think there are two kinds of artists and aesthetes out there; there are those that use art as a kind of pissing contest. For them, art is like the Olympics and they are determined to "get the gold" (even if in their imagination) and look down on everyone else who doesn't. Then there are what I would consider the true artists and aesthetes; those who have enough wisdom to realize they're standing in the shadows of giants and the best they can hope for is just to capture a piece of those shadows for themselves. They appreciate expressions high and low, great and small, ambitious and humble. They're all ultimately after the same thing and that's to capture some small part of our existence and any time they do that's no small achievement.

[Dinkleberry2010]

You're right, Morpheus, about there being two kinds of artists (or poets), and when the second kind is able to, as you put it, "capture some small part of our existence, it is no small achievement."

Unfortunately, I suspect that the first kind of artist (or poet) outnumbers the second.

[Dinkleberry2010]

bumped because it needs and deserves to be read more

[cogs]

i believe if you write a controversial piece, because of its nature, people are bound to react. some are left to guess whether they are the subject. i would reference my last poem, 'bare', as a peace offering, but even that poem was written from some of the same emotions i believe you incorporated here.
regarding the work, it's an articulate opinion, with interesting snippets of inspiration, which could make for more poetry. i appreciate that you decided to relay your thoughts here.

[Dinkleberry2010]

thank you for the appreciation

[Dinkleberry2010]

bumped

[Katy North]

Good poem, two suggestions...

Take out the you.

Example:

You divorce youself from the mass and the flesh
to whsper your bloodless, gutless, tenuous fragments
to the initiated few; you admit no direct,
plain or concrete descriptions; to you a poem
must contain only oblique allusions

Divorced from the mass and the flesh;
Whispering bloodless, gutless, tenuous fragments
to the initiated few; admitting no direct,
Plain, or concrete descriptions. A poem
Must contain only oblique allusions.

You will want to identitfy the pretentious people at some point, but throughout your poetry, your "you" is kind of a fluff word... in a poem I personally believe every word should count.

Personally, I think of poems as descriptive... yours is, except for the last four lines. If I were you, I'd lose that bit all together.

[Dinkleberry2010]

I agree. Every word should count in a poem; that's exactly why I used the word "you" because it brings it home so to speak--it keeps the poem specific and keeps it from becoming general.
I thank you though for reading the poem and responding and commenting on it.