javaverses's profile

I never know what to say in these things …  I am a 25 year old Houston born poet.

My poetry blog is at javaverses.blogspot.com. I post only poetry there, and as I edit I try to repost so I can show the progression of a poem. I also occasionally have audio clips of me reading.

I take poetry very seriously, I think it is important and undervalued in our society. I believe poetry teaches us how to look through another’s eyes where we can see more than just the events unfolding, but also the raw emotions.

I enjoy both going to and participating in poetry readings. Poetry, for me, starts on the page, but when it is spoken it truly lives.

I have been writing as long as I can remembe…

I never know what to say in these things …  I am a 25 year old Houston born poet.

My poetry blog is at javaverses.blogspot.com. I post only poetry there, and as I edit I try to repost so I can show the progression of a poem. I also occasionally have audio clips of me reading.

I take poetry very seriously, I think it is important and undervalued in our society. I believe poetry teaches us how to look through another’s eyes where we can see more than just the events unfolding, but also the raw emotions.

I enjoy both going to and participating in poetry readings. Poetry, for me, starts on the page, but when it is spoken it truly lives.

I have been writing as long as I can remember, but more since seriously since I was 14, when I joined my first writing group. I began reading in public about the same time. I took a number of years off where I didn’t write as frequently, during which time I married, divorce, remarried and had two very special little boys. I have begun writing again, and have begun to think of sending out some items for publication. The problem is I am addicted to editing. So I never feel anything is finished enough to actually submit anywhere. I try to be kind, but most importantly honest in all that I do. I expect the same in return.

In general, my preferred style for poetry is free verse, although I do occasionally lapse into other forms.

I think it is the poet’s job to be accessible in their writing. What good are you if it sounds wonderful but your readers have no freaking idea what you are talking about. My goal is to be understood so that others can relate their own life to my experiences and poetry, so please tell me if you don’t get it.

I will probably review only poetry. Since I don’t write much else, it wouldn’t really be fair to try and critique on other forms. (I have already broken my own rule – but I’ll only do that on really good tempting writings.)

Everyone reviews in a different way. Let me tell you how I do it so I don’t offend anyone else.

First off I will rarely give a 10, nothing is perfect. Please don’t be offended by a silly numeric score, I have to be really blown away to give out 10.  If you are posting it here you are (hopefully) looking for real peer to peer feedback, for suggestions to strengthen not only the piece in question but your writing in general. Maybe you are just putting out feelers to see if it’s ready for being submitted elsewhere for publication, that’s fine too. But either way you are looking for real feedback. I will give you that. What I will not do is bash anyone. I would rather not review or comment if I can’t be of some help or say something nice. On the other hand … I refuse to sing false praise. I am not here to hear how great I am, that’s what your friends and family are for. I am here for honest feedback, so if I say I like it, I really mean it. If you are only looking for someone to tell you how great you are, please delete my review, I don’t do that.

I know I may sound pretentious saying all that, but I don’t claim to be great or even good. Please remember that even well known published writers seek peer feedback, and sometimes its not all praise. No one is too good to improve.

I just do what I do, I like doing what I do, I like suggestions, feedback, and honesty. That’s all I ask for.

When I review poetry I try to look at a number of factors such as…

Is it understandable, at least by the third reading?
Does it keep me interested and most importantly caring about what’s going on?
How does it look visually on the page?
How does it sound when read aloud?
Do the metaphors make sense, can I visualize the images?
Poetic devises … are they used to enhance or do they make the poem stumble?
Technical … are places that could be improved by omitting there unnecessary word such: and, it, the, I, she, he her my etc ?
Do line breaks make sense?
Is there places that need grammatical correction or punctuation?
Are the words used, used correctly and/or spelled properly?

One more thing.

I don’t do revenge reviews. Which is so silly, but I see it happen here too often.

Most of the time I get items to review anonymously from the suggested review page, but if I do go to you user and select one, my review will always be about the piece in question, and never a personal attack. I try to be objective, even if I don’t agree with the view point. It’s about the poem, not the opinion.

(Just as a side note – The first review I did here got deleted because I was honest and the poet didn’t like that. So that’s why I have this long rambling bit about reviewing. Funny thing is I really did like the poem and scored it fairly high. I just pointed out a few inconsistencies I thought might help sharpen the poem. I even told the poet I like it in the review! Well apparently they had received a lot of bad reviews on it and took that out on me. The poet replied with a very scathing tone – suggesting that if I was a poet I would understand bla bla bla, implied I had not bothered to read it more than once, and went on to say that nothing he/she did was unintentional, but didn’t bother to explain what exactly the purpose was. Of course I had to reply to that – it was insulting, but I am a good girl and try to be fair and reasonable. I gave person the benefit of the doubt – I said – “Wow, that was harsh, but perhaps you are having a bad day.” I told he/she that I was a poet and understood the desire to be cryptic at times, but reminded the person that if the meaning doesn’t come across after a few readings he/she would lose their audience. I said a few other thing, none of them mean, and asked why exactly she was here if she didn’t want feedback. I reminded he/she that she should take the review in the sprit it was intended, to be helpful. The last thing I said was “I stand by what I said in my review, I still think it is a good piece, but perhaps unfinished.” I don’t know what he/she thought of that, because the review disappeared and so did the user. Good riddance! I almost chucked this site after that exchange, but then I figured, not everyone would be so touchy.)

Last thought – While poetry is an ever changing art form … we have to remember we are writing for an audience. I know a lot of poets who don’t believe in editing their poems at all, and think that being elusive makes it more poetic, somehow allowing the audience make it mean what ever they want it to. That can work sometimes, but the problem you run into is confusion, and a lack of caring. I use to be that way, but being involved in other poetry groups, and doing public readings has made me realize there is always room for improvement, and if your audience doesn’t get it the first time, most won’t bother to stick around for a second chance.

(On a side note – I am dyslexic. Occasionally I will omit words or flip the order of words. I try to proof read carefully, but the thing is I actually see them there even if they are not, I know that sounds weird. So please forgive me if I do this in a review, it not normally a problem, but happens sometimes when I am tired or stressed. Feel free to point it out if you notice it in a poem too.)