johnsonboy

The Poetry Workshop

I'm the youngest person in the room.
They keep making me come back.
They want critiques.
How do you critique a poem about nothing?
Yawn.

It's weird to be the youngest person in the room. But there isn't anyplace else to go for interaction with this many experienced poets. I keep trying to show rather than tell. Poetry is not a hobby! You bleed on the paper then organize the stain.
How hard is that?

They give me pantoums about nothing. Bloodless allegory, anemic allusions, half-dead elegies.

All I can say is, if I was writing that, I would go about it in an entirely different way.

last night, there was a guy there younger than me. I forgot about him. he's been there the past 3 weeks, which also represent my only 3 week's attendance in the past six months.

"At first I was offended by your suggestion," he told me last night, "But then I saw what you were trying to do."
Then he explained what he thought I meant which was entirely wrong, so I told him again, as clearly as I could. he was bemused, but not instructible.

I may have to swear off the workshop again. Spend more time at home, writin., Give less of my blood to the vampires.