06-05-2016, 10:20 AM
I'm new, obviously, but I've seen a couple of things that I would like to highlight that trouble me:
I have seen newer people that come here expecting not to have their work be critiqued, or take the critique in poor form. There's no excuse for bad behavior. Yet, this expectation that we as poets (of any caliber) shouldn't identify with our work is unrealistic, in my view. I'm sure that it's easier for some to view their work as a separate entity and not as an appendage, but I don't know a single writer that doesn't have some level of attachment to their work.
I think it's entirely appropriate to expect that people won't lash out when critiqued, but there does need to be some acknowledgement of the fact that this is someone's actual, real-time work and to imagine how you might speak differently to them if you were face to face.
The feedback I've received has been quite moderate, and I'm thankful for it. However, I've seen others' work ripped apart as if the commenter was so starved for violence that they decided that a poem would do as a meal in lieu of a flesh and blood person (even though it seems to be the poet's blood that they meant to draw). Like someone sticking pins in a voodoo doll, the intent is to cause harm even if their hands are not bloody.
Ok, enough with the gruesome imagery.
I have not experienced billy as being caustic
I have seen newer people that come here expecting not to have their work be critiqued, or take the critique in poor form. There's no excuse for bad behavior. Yet, this expectation that we as poets (of any caliber) shouldn't identify with our work is unrealistic, in my view. I'm sure that it's easier for some to view their work as a separate entity and not as an appendage, but I don't know a single writer that doesn't have some level of attachment to their work.
I think it's entirely appropriate to expect that people won't lash out when critiqued, but there does need to be some acknowledgement of the fact that this is someone's actual, real-time work and to imagine how you might speak differently to them if you were face to face.
The feedback I've received has been quite moderate, and I'm thankful for it. However, I've seen others' work ripped apart as if the commenter was so starved for violence that they decided that a poem would do as a meal in lieu of a flesh and blood person (even though it seems to be the poet's blood that they meant to draw). Like someone sticking pins in a voodoo doll, the intent is to cause harm even if their hands are not bloody.
Ok, enough with the gruesome imagery.
I have not experienced billy as being caustic