Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

burrs-thorns-spikes-knives-teeth
the critics
with all their ill-will
amassed over years
of resentment
why?
the kid next door has a new bike
why?
they were never taught to let go
of what?
the rules-the rules-THE RULES
and so
(really?)
all lives don't matter
all balloons must be popped
all loads in the pants must not be changed
the world insidiously stinks
rub their fucking noses in it
eat your shat dinner
"just another brick in the wall"

and so yooooo
think you (pronounced like screw)
can write the Queen's bloody English
oh ho
(REALLY?)
not a pit in the olive
so much drek

ya didn't follow the rules
ya didn't swallow the rules
ya got nothing to show
but baaaaad temper
semper infidelis
and so not a twit of poetry
hangs out on yore bare-ruined choirs
your heart, yar soul
is just copper wire
and I
da critic
vill flip da svitch
electrify u
fry your vowels
until they howl
aaaiii
eeeeee
"ooooooh me god, help me"
u
dog-bitch-curr-punk-bastard-dickhead-boob
"and "why?" ya ask
rrrrule 1959385b paragraph 7
subheading 22
but only what is printed indelibly
in RED

"thou shalt not write poetry
unless you have you meter gunning
to save the art
from putt-putt-putt farts
that say nothing

ya stink aspiring poet
think about how ya stink aspiring poet
I'll rub your nose in it
know that I_I_I_AYE_AYE
am CAP-I-TAN
and no shitty poem on my shit
er, ship"


[ and so no one dares a poem
in the great kingdom
where sterile rules prevail
and the veil of ego lifts
to show a monstrous chomping face
not a poet alive with a whip of words
to wipe the smirk from the critic's
self-satisfied face]

Note----this is about a most unfriendly poetry forum. Thank God, this is not Studio 8 which is home to self-expression and a little bending of the rules.

Note---this unpleasant poem is written about another poetry site. It makes perfect sense if anyone is familiar with that site and the people involved. To the uninitiated----and it ain't worth the initiation----this poem may seem extremely peevish and a rant. However, I think it is an accurate commentary on much of the goings on over there.
The cause of the poem and my ire? Just the nastiness. What broke the camel's back was one of the principals made a nasty allusion to a woman (LD) who wasn't really involved in a particular thread. That put down didn't need to be done. There seems to be a running feud over there.
What does all this personality conflict do. It saps whatever enthusiasm you have for writing. The wretched critics are a little ISIS in the poetry world.

Why did I write my nasty poem here? They don't need another artillery shell exploded in their war. They can carry on without me BUT I was so depressed and irritated that I could not just walk away from all the bile. Had to do a little throwing up of it myself. In a couple of days I'll forget the war of egos but it will still be going on there. Hopefully I will move on to lyric poetry and be a dynamo of nonchalance. I know for most of you this is all TMI. We all have our little axes to grind and poems to write. I am thinking about adapting at least on of the characters to a story or an unrelated poem. The character is too good to close the door on. Have to do it right though.

it's the owner of the site, and his attack "critics" On a huge power trip. Very sad.

Every one of us who has been there has written some rant poems about it. Yours is one of the best I've read. It's pitiful, really, that there are so many vile, angry, spiteful people on this planet, people with their noses stuck up in the air who feel the need to put other people down. Critique is one thing but criticism on a personal level is an entirely different thing. Thanks for speaking to it. I believe artists supporting each other important. Egotistical one upmanship can be dangerous to our health. I've tried everything... been pulled into the battles, fought back, offered love in return for hatred ... nothing seems to work. RevolutionR's comment is right on target. Peace & Love to you Dan! Don't let it get to you. It's not worth it.

the mean spirit that they call "critique" it is not helpful, and it does not make anybody feel creative, it is a some kind of bad energy that took over that site. I have seen it before on another site, it has something to do with the internet, and troll mentality. I know from dealing with it, and sometimes I went over the line myself when I felt like I was being attacked. But the systematic attack critique squad on that site is a farce. To pretend that it's a rant if you don't want to be the butt of their attack critique, but everything they say is sanctified by the owner of the site. If you call them bullies, they become even more bully. I feel sorry for the poets that have to go on there and deal with such systematic meanness.Yes if you need some critique, and it is done with kindness, that is another thing.
Why do people stay on there ,I liked the other poets.

revolution, I think many of us have a fascination with drama, evil, and maybe we want to show our mettle in battle. I think that is why that other site is somewhat popular. That motivation is far from ideal. I'm fascinated with a certain evil character over there that I would like to put into a poem or a story---adapted, imagined. The real person is as fascinating as a poisonous snake. The reason that the character is dangerous is that he could infect you with his nastiness and you become nasty too. I'm getting over the infection but still I might want to use the character in some way as a prototype villain. Maybe nothing will come of it.

It is all crazy.

so a guy goes to his psychiatrist
says, Doc, every time time I do this
it hurts my head, and the shrink says
don't do that

used to get into some knock down
dragged out fights on poetry in baltimore
with some ultra right wing block-headed narcissists
that couldn't find their way out of a paper bag...
they were vicious, rude, and seemed like
the type that may shoot up a movie theater
one day, so I learned to never engage them,
that being "right" was a loser's game, the game
is your participation, when you refuse to engage
the game is over, and essentially you have won
all out boycotts of lunatics is the strongest message
you can send them....they are skilled at inflammatory
language to bait you into the game.....walk away !
when not a single person responds to their vitriol
it's over for them, they will have to learn to sit alone
in their room in the dank basement

That's a very wise reply, steve.

Form stifles stride....how else can u be original???.....think about it

i agree with trying to ignore, but on that site it is the owner that allows the attacks called critique, and at least three other people that are in on it, along with the main blue meanie. Yeah, you could write a book about it. When I was battling a super troll on the Deoxy site years ago, i was thinking about that, because then the internet was new to me, and I did not know where all this was going. But now I see it never went anywhere. There are other poetry sites where people critique to control not to help, I recall being on one other poetry site, and the same sort of thing happened there was the owner of the site and a few people that were on her wave length, I just wanted to write my poetry, and they just wanted to bend me, I ended up battling with them too, because they, a group of them, were on a control thing, i did not go along with it. Something about the internet that brings it out. I realize now that something in me, made me want to give back to them, and can imagine what it was like to be a dadaist, or surrealist, but back then it was not on a machine called a computer. I would not have written my book if it had not been for the computer, but now I wish i had written it on a typewriter. Imagine telling a poet that has been writing most of their life, that something they wrote is not poetry, does that mean that what I write is not poetry because, I did not conform to some rule, this is the ultimate insanity. It is painful to talk about this, but poetry was always about that.

It's just human nature. When people are egged on and harassed, it's our nature to try to fight back. And they know this. You see it in everyday life, too, with unnecessary dramas. I try to avoid them and as we age and become wiser, we learn to remove ourselves from such situations, but it's not all the time all that easy to do. With the internet, it's a bit easier. We can always stay away from places where there is drama and nastiness. But still, once we get caught up in it, it's not all that easy to be quiet. It's human nature not to want to be attacked and when we are attacked, to try to defend ourselves and each other.

yes I am human, and a human that wrote poetry for most of my life, even if I was not a good student in English class. I did not have time to learn rules of the English poetry people. I read the poems of the poets that I liked, never thinking about some rules, commas, ect.

also, I don't write haiku, but I respect those who do, and the rule of haiku, because it is understood that for it to be haiku it has to be haiku, but poetry is art, and I could write a poem on a comma, or a notepad, or make up on the spot, without rules, except that I don't scream it in a theater like fire.

I agree. I was just talking about why bullies are bullies. It's because they CAN. They rile people up on purpose because they know it's human nature for people to get upset and defend themselves and it makes them feel powerful. Seriously, some bullies are sociopaths. Sociopaths, by definition, have no empathy. They are egotistical and they want to get a rise out of people because it makes them feel important. Very sad if you ask me. Commas, periods, semicolons, notwithstanding. It doesn't matter the topic, they will try to intimidate people and often succeed. Why? Because it's human nature for people not to like to feel intimidated or put down.

the world is run by those kind of people, i guess that is why I resorted to poetry.
I think I saw the writing on the wall, and I wanted to write over it.