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Blog Posted by Kevin Shaw: 8/26/2019 1:45:00 PM

I have been reading some poetry by Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes as well as a lot of poems from fellow Soupers,

Ted Hughes former poet laureate is considered one of the best poets of the 20th Century, but I don't really like his stuff. The more poetry I read the more I start to doubt the merit of my own poems. My poetry is generally simple and uncomplicated and nearly always rhymes. I think perhaps a lot of poets feel unappreciated, unloved and unread. Is there just too many writers and not enough readers.

Is this just me or do we all have our moments of doubt

Regards, Kevin

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Phil
Capitano

Date: 9/4/2019 7:50:00 AM

Many times I have felt unappreciated when poems that reveal my naked heart go by unnoticed while others with less depth have praise heaped upon them. It is my own insecurities that show through in frustration but if I write with authenticity, pride is the nail on which my poems will hang. My style is not for everyone and my messages are not always clear; I understand and accept this, now. Keep writing Kevin, until the pen falls from your cold dead hands.

Indiana
Shaw

Date: 9/3/2019 11:27:00 PM

Doubt not, Kevin . . .

Andrea
Dietrich

Date: 8/29/2019 4:03:00 PM

Hey, I see you are a '55er like me. Sweet!!

Andrea
Dietrich

Date: 8/29/2019 3:48:00 PM

I think many of us just want to "be heard" (or in the case of this site: "be read") People may say, "we write for the sake of writing" or "write to please yourself" That is all good and well, but it's like that expression: If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? Well, yes, it makes a sound. But what is the point if nobody hears it? I'd be more gratified watching Netflix all day than writing with no audience. Sadly, one has to read and comment to others to get others to read and comment back. I simply cannot believe anyone has the time to read our poetry here with all this competition unless we are "participants" in the community process and reading each other! Also, Kevin, don't doubt yourself. when I started out, I was a nobody. I just kept using challenges to make myself write more and more. I commented to many people to be read. I have seen so many people grow and grow with their years of practice. I am not the best, but I know my strengths and you know yours., so just keep going and do not despair. Personally, I cannot stand abstract poetry (and much of today's free verse is this way). I like simple poetry, humorous, romantic, and personification, etc. Find friends who think like you do. Emulate the kind of poetry YOU enjoy. Do challenges. I never know which contest is going to bring out my best, so I just do as many as I can. Maybe one out of ten times,I finally form a pearl! Good luck in your own writing process!

Gregory Richard
Barden

Date: 8/29/2019 3:40:00 PM

Reassurance, support, encouragement, honest opinion, etc., are all such wonderful things, because they buoy our spirits and push us on, so I doubt ANYone feels they get too much. That said, my life has been far too busy to read and comment on others work the last couple of months, (though it's one of my favorite things to do), and as a result, I get very few comments anymore, (some poems none), though I still get as many "hits", and that's just the way public sites roll, understandably. So, bottom line, I write for myself anyway, and have gotten to a point where I know good poetry from average, and can assess my own work pretty well. That's the start point, and anything added is frosting! :)

Andrea Dietrich
Date: 8/29/2019 4:00:00 PM

yes, Greg. you definitely know your poetry!!

Connie
Pachecho

Date: 8/27/2019 4:14:00 PM

When there's no sun*How can it be fun*I'll take waves and a tan*Over mothballs in a can*Here the poets are shun*Their views are none*It's a shame, some have run*While legs at the top sit mum-

Connie Pachecho
Date: 9/1/2019 6:03:00 PM

Forever the black bears picking berries way over their heads.

Craig
Cornish

Date: 8/27/2019 11:58:00 AM

Kevin, the bottom line is who cares. Like Sandy says, go by the one person rule and that one person should be you! If you draw a tear from yourself as you write you've won and then anyone else is frosting. Comment a thousand times giving artificial praise and you will receive the same and it all will mean NOTHING except back scratching reciprocation. If you wish to be avant garde then you must toe the line of free verse and ambiguity with originality of presentation tossed in. I like to write somewhere in the middle of it all because I hate fads - it's like punching throw pillows so they all look the same. Write what makes you happy or seek out how to improve and be willing to learn.

Craig Cornish
Date: 8/27/2019 9:49:00 PM

Yes, trust in the force and you will, if you leave, cease to be, you will, but in this faith you, free, will be...

Craig Cornish
Date: 8/27/2019 6:11:00 PM

LOL - like one of my favorite lines from On Golden Pond...He's just an old man trying to find his way.

Sandra
Adams

Date: 8/27/2019 10:19:00 AM

I think many feel this way at times...we all write for the joy of writing, we all love being read and having opinions shared, we all write differently, that's the beauty of the art of poetry...some excel in free verse, some in forms, some in rhymes...the site would be boring if we all wrote the exact same way, would it not? we all try and read as many as we can, but many have hectic lives to live with more limited time...if you touch just one person with a poem, was it not worth the write?

Craig Cornish
Date: 8/27/2019 12:01:00 PM

Exactly

Tania
Kitchin

Date: 8/27/2019 5:18:00 AM

Yes, I think we all feel that way at times. I enjoy reading all types of poetry styles from simple, fun poems, to extravagant, fancy poetry. I enjoy the meaning and expression in the poems more than them being fancy and more sophisticated. I think some of the best poems are the simple ones about everyday life and the ones with so much emotions expressed. We all have different tastes and some poems will appeal to some but not all. I write as a sense of expression and emotion. If an idea comes to me, it is time to express it in my writing.

Edward
Ibeh

Date: 8/26/2019 6:59:00 PM

Personally, I never feel that way, but I'm self-aware enough to know that I'm not in the league of great PS poets like Dear Heart, Line Gauthier, Andrea Dietrich, Emile, The Bard, Subimal, Silent One, to name a few...lol. They all inspire me to be better, though

Edward Ibeh
Date: 8/30/2019 4:58:00 PM

I'm very pleased to know that I inspire you as well, Andrea:-) Looking forward to your entry in my current contest!...

Andrea Dietrich
Date: 8/29/2019 4:05:00 PM

You were sweet to say we inspire you. I think the number of poets here who inspire me is too great a number to even say. you are one of them. Your contests, too, have inspired me to write poems I would never have written without your inspiration.

Brandy
Nicole

Date: 8/26/2019 4:42:00 PM

Dear Kevin, I have been writing for sometime now. Speaking for myself. Never once have I felt unappreciated when posting my words. I wrote them for a reason. A Poet should never doubt thoughts written, whether from the heart or just because. ~ Brandy

Craig Cornish
Date: 8/27/2019 11:05:00 AM

yup

Hilo
Poet

Date: 8/26/2019 4:15:00 PM

Kevin my friend, hope that the following, on the most part, is not viewed as putting on airs, but to place a sense of measured value on your subject matter, perspectively. Poets or whatever field of interests that would garner that notoriety, self-imposes a bar higher than that of the rest, thereby, our offered gifts will be viewed as abstracts in a world of absolutes for we are moths drawn to light that is not seen but live in our shadows until they themselves see the shared freedom being expressed and in their own time to perceive the struggle of earned respect ~ Aloha William

Hilo Poet
Date: 8/27/2019 2:57:00 PM

Really, I thought you further south--didn't see your other comment till recent, we try not to use the bug light cause of the moths, just when the mosquitos are active when we're out on the lanai

Hilo Poet
Date: 8/27/2019 12:14:00 PM

For I am in the light that found me for I am not in shadows nor in search mode or need be on any journey so late in life as all will soon end with bumps such as you seem to offer? But as I started off that it could easily be misconstrued and taken in another way.

Craig Cornish
Date: 8/27/2019 12:03:00 PM

Not logical my boy SOS, then you have to fly to Mexico every year - the nearest light is a shorter journey

Hilo Poet
Date: 8/26/2019 6:46:00 PM

Only moths dot my country house lanai walls whenever I bust out the kerosene lamp for a pleasant gathering of thoughts and moths, never had the reason to bust it out in the day for monarchs who's busy chasing after the Sun--that's a sight--strands hangings down my Banyan tree, thanks

Jan
Allison

Date: 8/26/2019 2:08:00 PM

I can relate to every word and I feel exactly the same as you Kevin, I write simple poems and much prefer rhyme and yes I doubt I have much poetic ability but the main thing is I have fun even if my poems are considered poop! hugs Jan xx

Craig Cornish
Date: 8/27/2019 10:59:00 AM

Yes Jan, Unless you have aspirations to famously be at the "top" of the art you (collective pronoun) should bathe in your passion and fame be damned because if we cannot have fun without someone else's approval life will be an impossibly difficult and frustrating journey. Also, if we have fun, who the freak cares - do it!

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