From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1050">Kase</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

I haven't written anything in a while, so any and all comments are welcome.  Writer's block is hell to cope with, ain't it?  Pleae, even if you hhave something to say, please be honest!!  Don't worry about my feelings, because a true artist or writer has to learn to accept negative comments.   P.S.  To all of you that usually don't sat anything if you don't like a poem, speak up!!  I can take the bad with the good, and in my opinion, you're going to be bashed to death, one way or the other.   I've found that critic (especially older poet)  can offer a lot of insight and I've learned how to get over the "personal attack" approach.  I need some wisdom to advance in life.  So please, respons positive or negative, just give me uncensored feedback.  You're not going to hurt my feelings or make me mad.  <BR>
I truly want HONEST responses so that I can grow as a writer.<BR>
Rennie?   Pam?  Ladyinwaiting:?   Your opinion are amongst the ones that I value.    Don't worry about hurt feelings or me losing respect for all of you.<BR>
    I know this isn't great work, but with little time have to write I'm strugging.   Please get back in touch through the Blender or my email.  Hope all is well with your families and yourselves.  May God hold you safe in his palm until we meet in person one day.    P.S.  I left Chances out by mistake!!  I value your opinion just as much as everyone elses'!!) Take care and God Bless.<BR>

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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=220">wolfscreamer</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

Kase.For what my opinion is worth I have started many times to write here when its been a while, but when I read its just not good enough and I have scrubbed it.Volume of writings is not what matters,its that what you write has feeling, maybe for you personally or it may touch someone out here.
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1226">Meredith</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

Kase - <a href="/blend/wv.cgi?id=2003.08.06.13.23.17080">Cooking up My Libido</a> - I love the last lines - "I'm as good as done" - I know exactly how that feels. 
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1103">ladyinwaiting</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

Kase ~ lovely...you can taste your feelings...good to see you back...I too have had some writers block...so I understand...<BR>
<BR>
aparajita ~ unrequented love...go girl...awesome work...
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=4">tj holland</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

Hi Kase ~ I hardly consider myself an authority on poetry critique, but I can certainly give you my unprofessional, unpublished opinion. I am like you and enjoy feedback in all it's forms. I love it when a person tells me that something doesn't work in my poem, or if they tell me parts are too confusing, or it doesn't flow well, etc. I may not change a thing, or I may re-work the piece, but hearing opinions when it comes to art (or even life) is part of art itself. I respect your desire to learn and grow. And asking questions and being open is the way to do it. Good job. So I will indulge your passionate request and talk about your latest..."Cooking Up My Libido". Keep in mind that this is all my OPINION based on MY preferences and my own mistakes. Critiquing a person's work leaves one's own work open for the same thing, and that's fine by me. Of course, anyone will find mistakes in my work also and is free to point them out or give me their opinion too.  <BR>
<BR>
{To begin, punctuation in poetry is a touchy thing. It can be distracting, superfluous, or it can make all the difference in how something is read. For myself, I now only use punctuation if it will change the meaning of what I am writing. There are probably some rules for poetry punctuation, I just don't know what they are. On another note, using similies and metaphors is also something to pay close attention to. Using old worn out cliches will make your readers drop like flies and trying to draw comparison/contrasts between very unrelated things will do the same if the writer just can't make it work. (though a writer who can make profound connections with very incongruent things gets my attention immediately, it's a fantastic skill). Also, keep in mind your audience. What sort of readers will read your work? Will your words speak to them? Help them to see something in a new light? Is your work attractive to their intellect? Are you saying something worthwhile? - I do realize that much of many people's poetry is personal and used for their own release of emotion, etc., so these questions wouldn't apply in that case. On the other hand, can you use your words and your own experience to enlighten someone else? How?}<BR>
<BR>
The ingredients he adds to my life,<BR>
a handful of this, <BR>
a touch of that.<BR>
Then he kneads me just so &lt;-- This is a great place to use a double entendre... e.g. he needs me just so<BR>
{until I rise in the heat <BR>
of his oven.} I have a hard time grasping the imagery of this. To me, men don't have ovens. LOL! Perhaps a different analogy would be better here?<BR>
<BR>
{Love, not too bitter,<BR>
not too sweet, <BR>
but just right for<BR>
for him and me.} This is a nice little line, but it seems disconnected and out of place here, in this spot. It may be tied in more effectively somewhere else.<BR>
<BR>
{There's no need to preheat, <BR>
for he does that to me<BR>
when he enters the room<BR>
and raises the temperature<BR>
inside me<BR>
by a hundred degrees.} This is a good concept, but it doesn't have much for rhythm and flow. Maybe use some words that sound the same, invoke a beat, or show a pattern.<BR>
<BR>
He says he can't cook,<BR>
but I know better than that,<BR>
because when he {makes an appearance,} You've already talked about him making an appearance. And really, his appearance is the preheat stage, the cooking is more than appearing. <BR>
I'm as good as done. <BR>
<BR>
There is a certain focus that needs to be kept in mind when writing, and that is one of logical progression. When we are free writing, our thoughts jump all over the place. So things aren't in chronological (or any other logical) order. When we revise and fine tune our writing it's a good idea to make sure that the progression of events or ideas is logical. It keeps the reader right there with us. <BR>
<BR>
Okay, so I need to go get my homework done. I do hope your request was in earnest and that you don't take any offense here. None was intended. Have a great day.<BR>
<BR>
-Teej
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=13">B.K.</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

Violet: Sweetie Pie, Congratulations on your Wedding. Somehow I missed the date,  but not when you give us such wonderful writings as always. This one made me laugh and smile (after a hard day at fraggle rock too ha) Thank you so much. <a href="/blend/wv.cgi?id=2003.08.06.11.44.18356">reasons to love you</a> Tell him because of you, we love him too. ps; I use old clean socks to dust and clean things too. ha. <BR>
<BR>
 
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=872">cryingshame58</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

Kase,<BR>
I liked your latest from the beginning to the end...I am in awe that you asked for my opinion...At work today I read your latest submit and thought it was clever....I also thought it had a perfect ending...I have been working on limericks for my friends' august birthdays and haven't had anything inspire me about "love"...so I have been just reading at the blender...hope everything is good in your world..<BR>
CS58
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1">Kirk, Blender-Keeper</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

On what makes a Front Page Pick...<BR>
<BR>
I've always admitted that picks are...well, not arbitrary, but subjective.  <BR>
<BR>
First and formost, I think I'm looking for something new, something that stands out by presenting a new viewpoint or making an original kind of statement.  <BR>
<BR>
I guess in some ways it's easier to say what's less likely to get noticed...I think if a poem is going to get attention in a public forum, it needs to have a message that applies beyond the speaker and the object of the poem.  A lot of opinions have a form like "I thought" and "I felt"...just mixing up voice in second and third person helps me take a second look at the poem.<BR>
<BR>
Sometimes I think I might be ridiculous in encouraging love poetry, the most personal of forms, to be anything but "I" and "You" but still.<BR>
<BR>
There are two general uses of language that appeal to me: stuff thats more prosey (whether it's actually prose or is still poetry) and stuff that is...well, I guess more poetic, but in a certain...professional? way, that makes a richer, more multivoiced tapestry, rather than the solo line may poems end up as.<BR>
<BR>
Finally, I'm looking for stuff I can identify with emotionally.  And who knows, maybe I'm like the world's worst judege.  I don't believe in absolute of love.  The love you feel isn't amazing and wonderful because it's the first time anyone's ever felt that way, it's amazing and wonderful because it's a part of the human experience and continuum.  (Like it says in a poem I wrote "Comes to Love" : <a href="http://www.loveblender.com/1997september/whenit.html">http://www.loveblender.com/1997september/whenit.html</a> - "For centuries the game's gone on / And will be played once you are gone.") For me the truest love is sometimes hesitant and uncertain, hopeful and happy but not always giddy, or when it's lost it's not the world's most crushing despair, a broken heart is just a burden we have to get through life with, like a broken arm. Poems that come from that emotional territory are more likely to catch my attention than poems that paint extremes.
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=13">B.K.</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

Kase; <a href="/blend/wv.cgi?id=2003.08.06.13.23.17080">Cooking up My Libido</a> It made me smile and I don't need punctuation or sometimes even spelling. I just need it to say something or make me feel think or emote somehow good or bad. Then I know it's good. I need to feel it popping out the top of my head or make me smile or laugh out loud or cry. Thats the best of the best. The rest are just frozen useless words typed into space.We each are the judge of what we like and don't like. Pretty simple, if you like it thats all that matters. And Kase this one's wonderful just as it is.<BR>
<BR>
bk<BR>

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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=13">B.K.</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

I was cleaning out old e-mails tonight and found this one written to Jack in 2000. There was a fight at another site as I recall about what poetry was or was not. Right Jack?<BR>
<BR>
"The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art<BR>
is by finding an objective correlative, in other words<BR>
a set of objects, a chain of events, which shall be<BR>
the formula of that particular emotion. Such that when<BR>
the external facts, which must terminate in a sensory<BR>
experience, are given, the emotion is immediately<BR>
evoked."  T. S. Eliot<BR>
<BR>
bk
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=4">tj holland</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

This isn't a fight about what poetry is or is not. Kase asked for feedback. We gave our unprofessional opinions. Let's keep that in mind folks.<BR>
<BR>
-Teej
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=4">tj holland</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

I should have warned Kase what happens here when the feedback is more than just "Oh! So nice! I liked it!"<BR>
<BR>
LMAO!
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=35">Star of David</a><BR>
Date: 6 August 2003<P>

jwb71913,<BR>
<a href="/blend/wv.cgi?id=2003.08.06.00.06.17720">First Grade, First Love</a> - this one made me smile...
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