New York Pitch Conference Reviews, Algonkian Writer Conferences, and Poetry Forums

Extremely good of you to say so Bob. In return I would say that since you have become a member of this forum that the forum has run much better, with improved good humour and your encouragement has added to the spirit of mutual learning and the workshopping has been superb. You and Bernie, together ...

I know Bernie
just had to write it.
Couldn't do poetry on it
it had to be that way.
Call it prose, that's okay.

Yes, the repetition has to be a form.

I think the word weaseliest is banned RC as appllied to fellow poets, read the IBPC rules respect and dignity are called for. If we disagree on a poem so much it is not expected we confront the poet on it, that would mean antagonism, most forums advise writing an alternate view. on the same topic i....

I nominate Bob's Goldback Fern for this month's competition. I am keeping 2 more open till end of month. Goldback Fern Under bay laurels we looked up at insects flitting through a lemony light. In the distance sunlit clouds brushed the grassy hills blond, the way the goldback fern's underside leaves...

After reading Bernie's reply I am ashamed I never said those thing the way he did, I felt them in your poem but could not explain why. Okay Bob, I will nominate this one for this month, I really don't know the best to send Missing Sock to, I rarely send out anything these days, so many dead ends and...

Thanks Ken that is just the response I wanted. I needed to measure the how hard I had wrung out the emotion. I had a hysterical response a few months ago to this, some poor woman who had aborted. It's not about hating anyone, it the opposing view that the early termination is right for mother and ba...

He he.

It's not so much pulling rank, it is to remind you that a person that bridles over being told larch doesn't need a capital needs to listen to experienced poets. Ken is experienced, he gives valuable feedback, the poem doesn't need explaining to anyone. It either works or does not. The correct respon...

I sat in a liquid sac, you protected me from all harm, fed me warmth and sustenance. You felt me grow, not as an alien, but as part of you. How wonderful, I AM has made a man-child. My heart beats from week six, by seven it is strong and regular. At ten I am officially a fetus, by eleven I breathe a...

A pleasure to read.

After being told by you never to dare critique your work I approach this moment with trepidation. It is different here we give critique in a spirit of mutual help and the understanding workshopping improves our awareness of our own shortcoming and often this improves our work. We have here gifted po...

Thanks Bernie
I wrote a form of this 8 years ago
or so it seems
and Michael wrote a long critique showing me how
haiku was supposed to work.
I have tried to follow his advice.

On the hooter's call
I cycle out of the docklands
payday, weekend free

Meeting, in her red
jumper, unexpectedly,
Susie at the bridge.

Will I babysit
with her this green night, getting
to know each other.

I am around your age Bernie, so I could have written this, but I didn't. The books and what happens to them and what doesn't happen to them a metaphor for the man's (N's) life. A sad man, a forsaken man. Oh dear how often we feel discarded and forsaken but then someone comes into our life and everyt...

I like this poem Meena
rings so true of family life.

On this forum the Americans will scratch their heads
at LBW and Howzaat, but I am with you all the way
though cricket was never completely my game.

I feel children would be the right word instead of siblings.

Did you know Bernie
the North Sea
at it's deepest
will not cover the top of St Paul's cathedral, London.

Meena, I would love to see this revised
in time for the end of the month.

So many good poems this month Bob
it's going to be hard to choose
and another 9 days to go.

I had to read this several times to fully appreciate the poem Bob. Not for anything lacking in the poem it was so different from your normal work. I looked up the pentagramma trianglaris plant, found in California and North West America. It loves shady parts of the forest and thrives on the slopes o...

These spammers are so annoying.
Am I getting tetchy in my old age?

Hi Bob You have put it up for critique, not just friendly words, so here goes after a quick glance. You have a gift for telling the lives of these French painters, maybe a few chapbooks full, it is your forte. Some suggestions, use or discard at your discretion: S2 would the less used word be of use...

Quite a revision from an earlier work of your Bob,
I must say I like it,
polished.

I ask would 'How heartless was I?'

be more to your taste than: 'How heartless I was?'

Reverting to an earlier name
Frank by any other name is still frank.

regards