POETIC EFFRONTERY

All writers have a gift to express themselves. Encourage writers to work at becoming strong in their gift. Don't tear them down to lift yourself up!

 

 

It is pure ignorant effrontery to say you’re a bard above the sublime
To use your pernicious baneful ego to tell poets they're a waste of time
You swat at their inspiration which is like a bee coming to explore
You never allow their ideas to pollinate before you slam them to the floor
Lost in your own ineptitude you attack every fledgling sonneteer
Forgetting the purpose of a poet's gift is to bless the world with something pure

 

Who are you to judge what is graceful and of good taste?
Who are you to criticize what is haphazard or a waste?

 

Whether they are an odist or an elegist every poet in this world belongs
Every writer is a lyricist that teaches the world their unique song
Closed minded ignorant versifier you are complacent with your gift
Your pettishness is markedly juvenile; you will suffer for all these silly tiffs
Open your mind to possibility, encourage new writers everyday
Before one day you seek to criticize and realize your own gift has gone away

 

© 2013 Eddie Phillips

Author's Note

I have seen comments on here that are just insulting to writers. I have never received a negative comment like this but it burns me every time I read one. It is okay to give a comment or suggest a correction. It is not okay to criticize a person personally. It takes premeditated malicious audacity to be rude like that. No one forces you to read someone's work. Having said that don't slam them when you do. Especially if English is not their first language. It is pompous and ill-willed. Think before you try to kill another persons gift. You may also be damning yourself!

Reviews

[Tom]

I agree with the rationale behind your well thought out and poetically penned muse, though to counter slightly, constructive criticism is a very positive aid to any would be literary writer/poet ! But no one can stand a 'big-head', that's for sure !!

(take a look at my own poem 'Egotistical' it kind of supports both our views)

[Eddie Phillips]

thanks for reading this poem. I agree that constructive criticism is a must. I however don't think people should insult people expressing ideas. That is not creativity. If you truly have the spirit of creativity you will foster it in others when you see it. I will read your poem. Thanks for stopping by.

[eatme]

I agree. It is a hard knock life. What I can say so many years in, IF ONLY in the beginning a mentor had properly beaten me up to tell me the basics and not let me indulge amateur behaviors. Agents are scumbags looking for a free ride and know nothing about writing. Publishers are scumbag gatekeepers who bottleneck the art to control 'supply and demand'. The public can't get too many great books at a time because it divides up the money pot too much. Like film, they never take risk because the money is in pushing the same old that sells. Everyone will beat you up. People have suicided over the constant rejections by know nothings then get the Pulitzer for fiction after they are dead.

If you can't take a beating... get out of boxing.
Writers are fighters or you won't survive.
Just the way it is.
Big truth is: people are selfish.
Anyone who takes the time to teach you, is a great human being and a friend.
All those phony sycophants giving you 5 stars for cliche' crummy crap, are poisoning you with their lies, SAME AS BOXING. "Oh, you are the greatest boxer I have ever seen! You should get in the ring with Kill Kowalski!" Yeah, Killer Kowalski will kill you send you home in a body bag.

Take the pain.
Consider the advice that will make your work better. BETTER. Someone offered to make you BETTER and you turn it down? You must be nuts.

[Eddie Phillips]

I do agree. I will offer this point. Many of the people on here are not trying to be professional writers. They are just trying to express themselves and find a way to gain peace. Many welcome criticisms but that does not mean they should be personally attacked and called stupid, ignorant, or illiterate. I have seen all those comments on here. The people who make these comments are not true agents of creation. They are as you stated "no nothings" who try to get pleasure by attacking others. LOL I loved this discussion. I seriously thank you for your time.

[Tom]

like I said, 'constructive criticism' !

[eatme]

The excellence of our species is paramount. The art, literature, and intellectual grace of our species is paramount. The needs of the professionals MATTER. The needs of the 'I came here to yahoo chat with my friends.' people are irrelevant. They need to find a chat room, not a writer's club.

[Eddie Phillips]

So I would say that you critique their writing and not their lifestyle or culture. I would say that you encourage them and not hold them down. If you see all creativity as a professional venture then you have lost the "true love" of writing. What is the professional need to tell a mother that is writing about her grief that she needs to move on and write somewhere else. What is the professional motivation of telling a 15 year old blossoming writer to stop writing until he knows what he is talking about. Where is the admonition of the gift of writing? If you are so professional that you no longer love what you do then it is a task and not a gift. Professionals matter to those who want to publish and further their legacy in literature. Professionals do not matter to the writers who are just learning to fly. Mentor them and encourage them. If you want to be selective then realize that at some point someone may think you are inferior and shut you out. I prefer not to be a sycophant that only wants to hear people praise me. I however do not want to be a pretentious elitist that attacks people because they are not what I consider a writer to be. That is not growth and that is not the supreme rule of creativity. Even in critique we should encourage.

[eatme]

I pity the dead plant. It makes me sad.
My pitcher only holds so much water.
Should I water the seedlings with promise, or water the dead plant in a gesture of sorrow?
I have limited time and resources.
This is simply reality.
So to make it entirely clear,
I am in a lifeboat in freezing waters.
Two people cry out to me for help. I have a floatation device on a rope.
One cries, "I can make it! I want to live!"
The other cries, "I can't make it! I want to live!"
I throw the preserver to the one with determination.
Being the ruthless business that it is, both writers will probably drown unsung.
I can try to help one of them.
I will help the one who thinks he can make it.
The writers here looking for chat entertainment will be left to drown.
I don't have the resources for both.
I will use my energy WISELY.

[Tom]

A magnanimous riposte Eddie ! You are indeed a literal intellect that possesses not just creativity but compassion ! Most worthy traits for any writer!

[Tom]

Easy come easy go...that's me !

[Eddie Phillips]

This will be my final post on this. You are talking to a man that has spent 16 years in the military so you analogy of saving a life is rudimentary and general. You assume that you are the only one that can save someone. You assume its only your time. You assume they need only you to help them. They don't because there are many people who will help those who need it. I would ask you to put yourself as the person drowning. Survival is not based off whether you were determined or not. It is entirely up to the person to "choose" who they will save. In the military we try to save as many as we can until we cannot save anymore because of time or loss of life. "Leave no man behind!" I would also say to you that nothing in your analogy gives you the right to curse the person that is going to drown or laugh while they are drowning. We are talking about decency. I am a INTJ which is a rare personality type. We are logical and judgmental but even I know that you don't try to harm others. If you use your energy to save only those you deem worthy then that is your choice. I would however ask you to remember the Titanic and all those who were chosen to live and all those who died needlessly because of the same thought process you just displayed. LOL It is not about you wanting to make people a bastion of professional literature. It is about allowing people to write what they want and helping them (If you choose to) become better in their writing. That is the case and there is very little argument against that. However I will affirm that you have the freedom to choose what we want to do. So you do what you must and I will do what I must. There is no further argument that needs to be fostered after that point.

[eatme]

I deeply deeply DON'T THANK YOU for the military. You DESTROYED AMERICA. You TOOK AWAY our freedoms. You were MERCENARY FOR BANKERS, to still FREEDOM from others. You helped murder women and kids. I have no freedoms left. NONE! So when YOU LIE, you defended my freedoms? You sucked at it. There are all gone. Constitution is gone. Obama is JOINING AL QAEDA to attack Syria for Israel. Al Qaeda attacks for us as mercenaries? Well yeah, trained by the CIA, like on 911. If you had not joined, if NO ONE had joined, their evil might have dried up. Thanks for fighting for foreign bankers to ruin the world. You came to the wrong place to find someone dumb enough to fall for that flag waving sophistry. Re enlist, you can go join Obama's Al qaeda and destroy another nation for Israel. You know ISRAEL? That country of white power? They at this second are deporting all their blacks to Uganda. That WHITE POWER ISRAEL where you can never be welcome or live... you fight for? How smart was that. Thanks for nothing.

[Tom]

Like I said, easy come easy go with a bit of constructive criticism thrown in for good measure, that's about all I can say !

[Eddie Phillips]

HAHAHAHAHA! Okay well there goes the rational person argument! Kudos! I don't talk to the irrational and hateful. I will however pray that you understand life better.

[Eddie Phillips]

I agree with you Tom.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Here! Here! In my early years in the Poetry Forum on America On-Line, I came across an RHEpstein who was just like this. He was critical to be cruel and was relentless in his pursuit of tearing me down. Thankfully, I had the wherewithal and resilience to overlook him; but at times, I have to admit, that he cut me a time or two. I always thought it was such a shame. Even in that moment at the time, I admired his intellect. It was obvious to me that he could be such an inspiration and a great mentor. Instead, he was so vitriolic that he spewed venom like a snake. I still think of him. My mother was critical just like that, with never a kind word to say, never an encouraging tone, nothing. Her abuse gave me my backbone, praise be. I will never let the likes of her nor RHEstein walk over me.

[Eddie Phillips]

You are what you are. You never have to compromise or be what another person wants you to be. Your art is your unique voice that no one else can imitate. Be yourself!

[Abdul Aziz]

This is awesome! Forgetting the content for a moment, I think the way you've written this poem is a delight in itself. The poem is composed of rhymed couplets but because of the number of syllables in each line, it doesn't have a sing-song effect which would not be in sync with what the poem tells. I do agree with the content too. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but talking ill of others definitely is not. I haven't seen any comments like that, but I'll make sure to flag them. Brilliant write. Thank you for the poem and for getting the message out.

[Eddie Phillips]

I am a fan of writing from the heart and ignoring the ignorance of the biased mind.

[GIUSEPPE]

Thank you for writing this! I am fairly new to writing and it could be hard to take if another more experienced writer told me my writing was "haphazard or a waste" and I have self confidence. It could be totally devastating to someone else. It is one thing to provide constructive criticism, quite another to judge a write as ungraceful or not in good taste.
GIUSEPPE

[SyberRose]

Yes some people don't have a bed side manner...so to speak...nicely said Eddie...Rose

[Mockingbird]

i agree with what you say. some feedback can be hurtful. you are an eloquent writer. your language is intelligent and really evokes your passion. you have the courage of your convictions and used that quality to create art. it's good you penned what i felt but never thought to write a poem about it. it goes to show you can get inspiration everywhere if you are perspicacious and have the passion. i really admire your poem and the message it conveys. excellent job.

[Pryde Foltz]

I am so glad to have been introduced to your pen, Eddie. Wow, such fine flow and rhyme and such thoughtful message.

[Marie]

I've received some really vicious comments on my work. They don't matter to me at all.
It's true that you aren't forced to read anyone' work. I don't take read requests, because that keeps me from getting any work done. But writers (especially bad poets) have an irritating habit of sending me private messages asking if I will read their work. So far I've been nice about it. Someday I won't be.

[JelliFyshKissUs]

I love your message. The positivity is much needed on this site. But while I agree that criticism of one's work is cruel, the intentions of some who write and review are not so pure. While I love poetry in all its forms and commend any who express themselves, I and many other pure souls have left this site because some are here simply for popularity. Leaving two-word reviews only to be reviewed. Sending poems and reminders through emails if they feel you haven't read theirs quickly enough. The beauty of those who are sincere in their writing gets buried beneath the all-about-me writers, and it is hard to find those who love to read as much as they love to be read.

Maybe it is not like that anymore. It's been over a year since I've been here. Maybe things have gotten better. With souls like you who are concerned with the essence of poetry as well as the emotional well-being of the poet, it can only get better, right?

You have amazing talent. You pen your thoughts beautifully and creatively. Thank you for making your heart bleed through a pen.

[ms. barrie]

I agree: amen! I feel the exact same way, very eloquently crafted poem, I love every
Word you chose and how you used them. , with pleasing meter and rhyme.
Constructive criticism is welcoming and helps one grow as a writer. inflated egotistical,
small persons behind a monitor screen that tears others down in order to build their
Inferiority complex up (and to have their writings/themselves gain attention ): is detrimental
To one's creative process. Thank you for penning such a positive, encouraging
Message in your poem. This has to be one of my fave. Writes on here.
100/100
Good luck in all your creative endeavors - b.

[Eddie Phillips]

Thank you. I am happy this poem connected with you. Unwarranted attacks on character or culture have nothing to do with writing. It is just a person trying to destroy writers. Thank you again.

[ms. barrie]

You're very welcome, I was very glad to have come across your poem...And I agree :)

[Rita L. Sev]

I want to shout "Amen!" to this, Eddie. You have said exactly hat many of us feel, and you have done so with great rhyme and rhythm at that! Critique and suggestions - yes. Self-inflating criticism - no thank you!

[Eddie Phillips]

Thank you for reading and agreeing with this poem. It is horrible the way some treat some of the writers on here. I believe in expert critique and think it makes you a better writer. I do not think attacking someone is critique. It is only a person trying to kill someone else's dreams. Thanks for reading. My mom loved your poem!

[Rita L. Sev]

I wholeheartedly agree with you, Eddie.
So glad your mother enjoyed my poem! Thank you for sharing it!