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Critical Analysis #1
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roxane
Senior Member
since 1999-09-02
Posts 505
us

0 posted 1999-09-04 08:45 AM


Upon Your Birthday

what can i give you my darling
i'll go away
i'll die
anything for you on this day
it's all for you anyways
in my sad eyes
the tears fuel my sight
they magnify the sad scenes
and allow the hurt to swell
become raw like exposed flesh
with your tender skin
you cut and stab
through the void you think i am
i have friends
another year older my sweet
is it better
worse
do you feel anything anyways
time i spent
at dark night
stitching up wounds of time
with silken threads of thought
only to find by cruel light
that scars too are ugly as wounds
they stretch in my mind
they become familiar in time
i have friends
is anything worth it honey
we grow up a little
and lose it
even on your birhtday i'm mute
i just think these things for you
keep in mind i love you
and you care not for me
so upon this birthday it seems
logical to think;
on this day you were born
you don't know that i was
and what a disparaging thought
i have friends?

© Copyright 1999 roxane - All Rights Reserved
Wolfgang
Member
since 1999-05-24
Posts 124
Hamilton, Ont. Canada
1 posted 1999-09-04 09:43 PM


I will admit to you that I am not a great afficionado of free verse but yours seem to grab in all the right places. Very passionate and insightful but again I must ask you: Why no commas and punctuation marks?
With your writing ability there has to be a reason for it and I am dying to know!

Brad
Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705
Jejudo, South Korea
2 posted 1999-09-07 03:09 AM


I agree about the punctuation. Just put them in later. Good writing is in the rewriting -- is I'm sure often enough mentioned here.

As to the rest of the poem, I enjoy the pleasure of pain thing you've got going here but I don't quite see the full situation. A parent (or some authority figure)is attempting to apologize for beating 'you'?

I would drop the last line, it doesn't have any impact. I would also maybe change the last few lines to 'Is it expiation you want?' or something like that.

Maybe break it up into stanzas as well to make it easier for the reader to,well, read it.

Good ideas, great imagery -- I like 'white curves smile at me / and sometimes spit out red seeds'. I see this as an infected wound. But, I think you need more detail, more punctuation, a stanzaic structure, and a stronger ending.

Brad

Brad
Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705
Jejudo, South Korea
3 posted 1999-09-07 03:11 AM


Ah shoot! I think I posted this in the wrong place. the above comment is for 'the pleasures of youth'. If it does come out, I'm sorry about that.
Brad
Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705
Jejudo, South Korea
4 posted 1999-09-07 07:35 PM


Well, since I screwed up my last post. I might as well comment on this one as well. I like the ending, 'On this day you were born / You don't know that I was / I have friends?' but think that a more, casual understated build up would work better. At the moment, I find the 'sad' 'wounds' 'cut and stab' detracts from the force of those last lines. Also, try to show us the 'birthday boy or girl' a little more -- a child, an adult, a lover, a friend? I think what would also create a stronger impact.

Keep writing,
Brad

TheCandyMan_1
Junior Member
since 1999-08-28
Posts 38
NY
5 posted 1999-09-07 11:20 PM


This does paint the picture well, but formatting (punctuation and form) would put 'impact' into it. This work does leave one wondering 'who' it is about? I re-read it many times looking for the clues as to who it was about. I have to say, first I thought of a spouse...then was more leaning towards it being a father that was not there. Then in reading it the third time I thought maybe it is not about anyone human but about feelings of the world and life. I tend to read too deep sometimes though. The birthday known being the birth of a nation (maybe July 4th) and yours being unknown because nobody celebrating it (I have friends?). God, I want to know the answer to this sooooo bad!!! It is tearing my mind apart That is a very good thing though. I look forward to your comments or re-write. Thank you for a read that promotes thought. I enjoyed.

------------------
©1999 JA.Malone


"Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite - "Fool!" said my Muse to me "look in thy heart, and write!" - Sir Philip Sidney

Wolfgang
Member
since 1999-05-24
Posts 124
Hamilton, Ont. Canada
6 posted 1999-09-08 10:34 PM


I have re-read this poem a few times and, I for one, do not wish to know who this poem is about. Now that I do know, it shattered my illusion of the first reading.
However, I like it just as much as before.

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