tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874155205423552780.post677436816545450705..comments2014-12-31T13:17:49.358-08:00Comments on Poets Are Lame (and other stuff Mike Finley taught me): The Most Important Poetry Topic Is?????Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02748441484232139833noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874155205423552780.post-26440380036337945022012-06-21T10:57:55.457-07:002012-06-21T10:57:55.457-07:00Rich, i will have to delve deeper, i guess i didn&...Rich, i will have to delve deeper, i guess i didn't view it the way you did in your explanation. i guess i just got caught up in the poems exterior. I loved thinking of my family as a smosshed cake oozing its way down the sidewalk of Hartford Avenue, but you bring up great points.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02748441484232139833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874155205423552780.post-77369444359223206092012-06-21T10:55:59.734-07:002012-06-21T10:55:59.734-07:00Great.......you just shared my sercret with the wo...Great.......you just shared my sercret with the world. i am a pattern seeking maniac.....thanks! LOLAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02748441484232139833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874155205423552780.post-16780139010326856702012-06-21T10:44:05.519-07:002012-06-21T10:44:05.519-07:00Last I knew, Laux was in Raleigh NC. She's a F...Last I knew, Laux was in Raleigh NC. She's a Facebook friend! Meaning, I have never met her.<br /><br />What she is doing is comparing her inexpressive possibly unloving) family with his overly expressive (therefore loving?) family. What's the truth? Who knows!<br /><br />As for the other, I don;t think about what the general category is (nature, religion, sex) when writing. I think about the thought I'm thinking ("Why are musicians' outtake albums so discouraging?" Answer: Because their throwaways are better than our very best), whatever that is.<br /><br />Then, as a reader you can stand back and see patterns ("He sure thinks about his penis an awful lot") but in the moment, who can stop and worry about that? <br /><br />And what kind of maniac would read 50 yrs of someone's work looking for patterns?<br /><br />What I worry about is writing the same poem 100 times, which I think I have done. We only really have a few poem-shapes in us -- the exaltation, the report, the love poem, the prayer -- and maybe two or three voices or attitudes.<br /><br />When i want to cringe, that's what I focus on.Mike Finley ~ Big Vanillahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09944010073428661081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874155205423552780.post-6107729535140036522012-06-21T10:42:53.915-07:002012-06-21T10:42:53.915-07:00Danny, it's a lovely poem, detailed, well told...Danny, it's a lovely poem, detailed, well told, but there's a part of me that feels, as I almost always do in the face of poetry of this kind, that there's something just a little too easy about it, a little pat. <br /><br />And then, as I reflect upon it a second more, I develop a kind of rash in response to the way this poem compares the poet's family life to the family life of the friend in the poem, that there is an element of negative self-aggrandizement going on here, an implied victimhood that undermines the well-constructed imagery, the deft handling of line and rhythm, etc. <br /><br />What Laux needed to do here was to embrace how the boyfriend himself perceived what he clearly sees as a curse, not simply deliver the message -- no matter how artfully composed -- 'Think you had it bad? I would have loved it if that's all my old man did to me! Here -- stop nursing your wounds and take a look at my bruises!"Rich Broderickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04702436226580880608noreply@blogger.com