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Iloveit
Senior Member
since 1999-09-02
Posts 1121
NM

0 posted 1999-09-27 12:49 PM


this is my poem that I said I would post, would love to have it critqued

Learning to be strong

I see you, walking, one step
in front of the other.
You make your way towards me, looking
gorgeous enough to break a heart,
for certain mine.
Each step bringing you
closer, I can almost look into your eyes.
I can see the charm, even from this distance, oh
bless and curse the window
that opened the hole and dropped you
here, each step bringing you closer
and yet farther from my arms
and, as my heart starts to pound,
my head swimming so that
your image blurs outside the window,
my eyes not even sure anymore if it is
you, but the panic inside tells me, yes.
And I vow to stand strong, and not
yes, not,
let your charm send me under.
But instead,
I desperately claw at the door
and blindly head in exactly the opposite
direction from you.

not this time, not again, not if I can help it...


------------------
©1999 Iloveit


© Copyright 1999 Iloveit - All Rights Reserved
Brad
Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705
Jejudo, South Korea
1 posted 1999-09-28 02:54 AM


Iloveit,

I'm not sure how to read this type of poetry yet; unfortunately, I have read a few that are very similar to this (no disrespect meant to your feelings) and am almost always the same thought pops into my head:

Why not?

Have you read Jack Kerouac; he's gotta a great scene where he feels the initial fear but then plows ahead (it's from, of course, On the Road). I wonder if you might want to explore this from the other direction -- of fighting that fear. From a reader's point of view, it's far more satisfying to read someone trying to find love than to see somone fleeing from it. Just an idea.

Some suggestions:
I see you walking, one step
in front of the other

--My first image was of a baby; can you describe how the person walks more clearly.

"my head swimming --" and "let your charm send me under" is pretty difficult to reconcile with "claw at the door" (possible but difficult). I wonder if you might set this scene in a pool or in the ocean. Hey, why not have the character swimming under water seeing only the legs (she's got goggles) walking toward her and only gradually realizing who this person is (and what that entails). This might lead to some really interesting imagery. The final flight is then even more complicated by the difficulty of fleeing in the water.

Just a suggestion,
Brad

Iloveit
Senior Member
since 1999-09-02
Posts 1121
NM
2 posted 1999-09-28 10:45 AM


well, I wrote this from an actual event, I looked out my window at work and saw an exlover, who I stay away from because he is not good for me, walking in to the building.
I could have stayed, and faced him, but my way of fighting this time was to run, to not let his good looks and charming smile get to me, I had spent a year getting him out of my mind and I was finally doing just fine,and now after all this time I didn't want to let even a vision of him back in.
But to go to your critique, I do see what you mean, about the "swimming", and "send me under"....could use some rewriting.
To explain the style, I don't often use it, only write freestyle and it usually just flows, but somehow in the writing, this worked, because it was a hard situation to deal with, and the off beat lines seemed right to me at the time....thanks for your critique

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