Howling at a Nation

New to poetry? Unsure about the quality of your work? Then why not post here to receive some gentle feedback.
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EatMyPoetry
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 7:51 pm

Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:44 am

Your country is an insult. We use it to belittle
Adding prefixes to insults and orange in situ
My laughter makes you itchy, allergic reaction
I have never seen you giggle. Only hysterical frowns

You are the average norm. In all your grey glory
Staring at the traffic lights, desperately seeking green
You proved yourself wrong, declaring victory in a
deafening, predictable tone. Beyond torture

At the party of the primary school clique. No outsiders
The volume of the foreign folk swallows everything
You were disguised as politeness for a cursory second
But undressed yourself to reveal colourlessness

You’ve left me sitting, sinking towards my polemic
demise. Asleep and nullified. Not awake. Not dynamic
Nor any state in between. I only spend my time
internally and eternally howling at your nation
Alucinary
Productive Poster
Productive Poster
Posts: 88
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:06 am

Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:10 am

Hiya,

This is a tricky one for me. I am not really sure that I follow this besides that it reads to me that you don't really like someone / a minority group of people but I don't know who or why...

Certainly a start would be to decide on the capitals, you started with each line beginning in uppercase (something I've discovered myself makes it tricky to read) but then by S4 you had forgotten and a lower case crept into S2 too. Ignoring that you had some good statements hidden within some misplaced punctuation - it appears like the full stops are in all the wrong places (where I think commas were the intent) and some line endings have been forgotten - this is probably just me having missed something fundamental though...

I think the words show promise, but the presentation lets you down in this one, hopefully someone else is better placed than I to help you improve it as I'd like to see a rework :)

Alucinary.
[center]Imagine a perfect world, create that world around you, and share your world with others.[/center]
Arian
Perspicacious Poster
Perspicacious Poster
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Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:41 am
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Location: Hertfordshire, UK

Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:20 pm

I'm sorry, but my first reaction was that this had to be something produced by one of those oh-so-amusing internet games which string random phrases together to make a "poem". It's just so full of constructions which completely defeat any attempt at sensible interpretation.
Adding prefixes to insults and orange in situ
You are the average norm
sinking towards my polemic
demise.
are just three examples. I could have chosen several other, equally impenetrable, sequences.

Having said that, I thought

Staring at the traffic lights, desperately seeking green
You proved yourself wrong, declaring victory in a
deafening, predictable tone

was a good, even admirable, sequence, in which there lies something recognisably (a) meaningful, and (b) poetic.

Sorry to be so negative on the whole.

peter
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