hands up

[billy]

I think re writing exercises are fantastic development for writers, as are "write in the style of" exercises though both are difficult for various different reasons. It is only tender egos and the fear of treading upon others' tender egos that keeps the practices from being more prevalent and I have seen some sites outright ban the practice.

I don't really rewrite here and post it (though I rewrite a ton of it privately for practice) but in a different group I once participated in, once a person started the rewrites, it went almost viral and we would have sometimes hundreds of rewrite until it was unrecognizable. I don't remember anyone getting upset but I may have been lost in the moment.

homage poetry is common, i can't see anything wrong in rewriting a classic or even non classic poem as long as it's really a rewrite and not a partial copy. i've don an odd carlos williams remake myself. but i'm not sure it was that was being referenced in this thread. doing a rewrite of someone's poem just because one's capable and posting it in the same thread isn't something that should ever be practised. doing a rewrite of 'she walks in beauty' or some such poem is on the other hand an excellent way to learn poetry. feedback's priority is to help the poet reach their full potential.

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I try and stay away from serious because I don't have much to offer when it comes to critique at this level, most other readers can vocalise what I see in a clever constructive way and usually beat me to it. there is a down side to this as I have now stopped posting in serious and have lost the workshop element of the site that meant a great deal to me. However I also buy in to the ethos that you must give to receive and at this moment my comments are finding their way to Mild and Novice, fun and Misc. The gift of change is obviously my own but at present I cannot give peoples work the time it deserves so I give what I can and take what I can get, hopefully this will change in the future. I have a tendency to want to rewrite and tickle balls so I always try to repress this constantly I don't always succeed. TOMH

i'm okay with someone posting in serious if they give feedback elsewhere such as mild or novice. one way to do it if you feel guilt could be to give two lots of feedback elsewhere fore each poem you place in serious