Blind Review Friday.The author shall remain anonymous (unless they chose to divulge themselves in the comments.)
Those commenting are also welcome to remain anonymous if they wish.
Incendiary comments will be removed.
If you would like your piece thrown to the wolves send it to salinger@ameritech.net with "Workshop the hell out of this poem" as the subject line.
This weeks submission comes from a Clevelandpoetics - The Blog reader.
Workshop Poem
Like other unpromising topics,
I was in a workshop
with a piece of good news.
The worst kind of subjectivity
turned another corner in my argument.
She argued not against it, but for it.
Our jaws dropped.
The best argument:
but I like it.
Been chewing on her words,
the story of how people learn to write.
Just like this, we write something
in a scandalized way. But, still
the same old story:
This is terrible.
But that’s not really what happens.
Next time we have the impulse to,
we’re going to learn to write better.
Damn it, I’m going to
write those unevaluated pieces
someday.
Then I will argue
for something
very different:
engagement.
4 comments:
I think there is something to work with here... but this piece strikes me as being unfinished.
When I read this I'm not sure what it is about...
I have a vague idea... but I feel as if I've been left dangling in some way...
I would like to see a little bit here that links things together.. so things flow a little better.
not sure what it is about?
it is as plain as day, and written quite directly and with a bit of humor, i might add, intended to mock the process, even as it hails.
??
is the above comment made in irony?
to be funny, or deadly serious and droll?
No ... that was my honest opinion on having read it several times.
I do understand the context.. a writing workshop...
but I'm honestly puzzled about the ending.. and the flow... so yes.. I personally felt left dangling... maybe more on my own obtuseness than any intent of the writer.
i personally think it is a satire on workshopping itself.
workshops ought serve not only to encourage the writer to better his work, but also to engage in a form of community as artists together.
a fellow can ask a fellow what he meant by lines or endings, did he/she purposefully leave out words or add in punctuations,
but a fellow might also share energies and drives and attitudes and go beyond syntaxes, into the realms of spirit, commeraderie, the shared experience
of what it means to write and be writers.
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