Being an ignorant newbie...

[FifthFlower]

I have a niggling suspicion that many people here use their poetic energies to "address" societal ills, as a means to avoid dealing with those things which are individually important.
...
I find it somewhat amusing that so many who post here seem to have become disconnected from the fact that this is an erotic literature site.
...
I may grow weary and take my little rhymes elsewhere, having heard enough here, that my topics aren't important. Until and unless I come to believe those contentions, however, I won't stop writing. There are other online communities, and other places to post.

I haven't seen much global politics on this site, but I can only read a fraction of what is written. Perhaps I just miss it or filter it out unconsciously.

Most people do seem to be less serious here than they are on other poetry boards. That's what I like about this site incidentally. If you are looking for metrical boards, there are always Eratosphere and Sonnet Central and probably many others. I think they are still very active. They primarily do "workshops" of poetry, but much of it is formal (meter and rhyme). I don't find online workshoping of much value, and some editors count it as a first publication, just like any post on this forum. I seem to be able to predict what someone commenting in a workshop, including myself, will say after a few posts. Then it gets boring.

The readers (non-poets) coming to this site are probably looking for "erotica/porn" and that probably does not even include "love" poetry, although it might if there is a certain taboo broken in it to stimulate the reader. There is certainly a lot of non-erotic poetry written here. I often wonder why. But then people can post most anything they want. Personally, if I could write good love poetry, or good non-erotic poetry, I wouldn't post it here, but under my real name where it could be seen by people not primarily looking for sexual stimulation.

 

[champagne1982]

Well, good poetry is all a matter of perception, don't you think? I post poetry mainly on the forums these days and not on the site index, but that's purely preference. It's easier to delete the contents of a thread post than it is to bother the site operators to delete a submission from the website, so it's just a method of personal control over my poems and stories and nothing sinister or snobbish.

In my opinion, labelling poetry posted here as "not good" because they're on a website that caters to erotica readers, closes your mind to the possibility that a jewel could be hiding in the tailings. I've bought a few poetry chapbooks and I've seen a lot more for sale in legitimate book stores, does that mean that vanity press poems or a book full of poetry based on one prize winning poem is better than many I've seen on this site? I don't think the book should be judged by its cover any more than character should be judged by appearance. To do so is unfair and not very wise.

First impressions are important, sure, but so are qualified judgements that are made in the course of a relationship. Many of literotica's poets are in a relationship (of sorts) with the site. We know that there are imminently qualified poets and writers who post work here and to say that doing so diminishes their skill and talent could leave a reader out of a potentially great experience.

It is also true that the nature of the site makes it possible to be more playful and experimental with poetry. I hope that this would only enhance the attractiveness of being an active member of the site rather than cause a reader's arse to slam shut and make them scurry out of the explorer window. To each his own, though. Even so, I figure definitions that quantify personal taste are simply opinions and not anything I can apply as a hard and fast fact to my own value judgements ... It's all way too individual for that.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Huh? This is a Porn Forum?? *Stomps out, stage left, muttering Why wasn't I told!? What will my Church pastor think?*

LOL!

Dammit, who told Eluard this was a porn forum? It was supposed to be a secret. Now he's gonna go off and find some "real" poetry group, and he was such a good addition to the pie fights.

As to being actually on topic, Smitty, I'm liking the new sentimentality I'm seeing around here. It's not my style but I admire it. Your work, and also the pieces that UnderYourSpell has been offering lately, have some gentle, classical appeal that I really enjoy.

again, thanks for being here. I do hope you stay.

bj

 

[Eluard]

LOL!

Dammit, who told Eluard this was a porn forum? It was supposed to be a secret. Now he's gonna go off and find some "real" poetry group, and he was such a good addition to the pie fights.

bj

Actually, now I know I'm feeling quite louche about it! I've opened up the shirt down to the waist, I've put on the gold chains and medallions and I've lined up some sugar on a mirror that I'm pretending is coke. Now…where are those collectable bubble gum cards of Jewel de Nyle??

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Actually, now I know I'm feeling quite louche about it! I've opened up the shirt down to the waist, I've put on the gold chains and medallions and I've lined up some sugar on a mirror that I'm pretending is coke. Now…where are those collectable bubble gum cards of Jewel de Nyle??

...nice...

I knew you'd go native in about ten minutes, given the opportunity. You bring that 70's porn aesthetic right over to the bistro where I can get at you, young man, and quit making me jack this nice poet's thread.

And don't snort that sugar. I think I can find something to sprinkle it on.

bj

 

[RhymeSmith]

Well hello everybody! I guess I should go work out more often. I haven't seen this much action since 19... well, never mind. It's been awhile.

So, in temporal order:

Huh? This is a Porn Forum??

Pay them no attention, buddy. It's not porn, it's erotic literature...

readers (non-poets) coming to this site are probably looking for "erotica/porn" and that probably does not even include "love" poetry... if I could write good love poetry, or good non-erotic poetry, I wouldn't post it here, but under my real name...

I suspect that most people coming to Lit aren't looking for poetry at all, but rather are looking for titillating prose to spur their own kinky imaginations. That's certainly what I was looking for, at first (I haven't done much reading since I got involved with this board!). I suspect also that many of the people who read the poems are looking for something other than stroke fodder. It also seems likely to me that what they're looking for, if they even know what they're looking for, might include love poetry.

I can't imagine masturbating to a poem; I guess I just don't have enough kink for that. I am moved by poetry, though, and I've found that others (some ladies for instance) are as well. Sometimes, in real life, a well turned, original verse has set a positive mood for a pleasurable interlude, or even an entire relationship, with another human being.

It hasn't been established yet, whether my poetry is "good," by any reasonable measure. The number of people who take the time to rate the work that they read, is abysmally small, so each individual rating carries an undeservedly huge impact on the overall rating the work receives here. It's also difficult for a poet to objectively judge the work of another. His/her own preferences as to subject matter, style, etc., always come into play, and bias the findings. It's human nature. I'm happy if there aren't any glaring technical errors in my work, and if it's understandable, and most of all, if the intended target thinks it's good.

As to publishing under my real name, there are two problems with that: 1) some publisher has to agree that the work is good enough to publish, and 2) much of what I choose to release here would impact me negatively, if it were associated with me, in real life. I'm not likely to let that happen.

Well, good poetry is all a matter of perception, don't you think?

Mostly yes, particularly as applies to content and style. I think you could make a case for "marking down" formal verse that violates the form, though. I've done that often enough, and that in fact is how this thread got started.

Smitty, ...thanks for being here. I do hope you stay.

No worries Beej. I'll be around for awhile. At least until I exhaust my backlog. I may even create a new piece or two, who knows?

 

[Eluard]

Two bits of advice.

Don't put any store — and I mean none — in the ratings on your poems. Some people will vote you down just for their own gratification. Most of us here do not bother with this system.

Secondly, Literotica may be an erotic literature site but the poetry forum to some extent exists on its own terms. Most of us here are not prudish, but very few regulars (none, possibly) are writing exclusively erotic poetry. That is just one string to the bow.

Here, fwiw, is my way of understanding this poetry forum and its function. We are like a bunch of crazy artists all living in one wing of a huge brothel. But we've made this wing our own. You get to wander from one room to the next and see what your fellow artists are doing. Don't criticise unless you are asked to, but if you are asked, then be frank and helpful. Most of here are showing these things to our fellow artists before we move them along for sale elsewhere. A certain amount of mutual respect is mandatory for cohabitation.

El.

 

[Angeline]

Actually, now I know I'm feeling quite louche about it! I've opened up the shirt down to the waist, I've put on the gold chains and medallions and I've lined up some sugar on a mirror that I'm pretending is coke. Now…where are those collectable bubble gum cards of Jewel de Nyle??

Eve made us write disco poetry once. I think if you keep that outfit on, you may need to write a disco sonnet!

 

[champagne1982]

Eve made us write disco poetry once. I think if you keep that outfit on, you may need to write a disco sonnet!

OMG... I wrote a horribly bad disco inferno hyper sonnet for that one...

the horror.. oh the horror.

 

[RhymeSmith]

A lament

Sorry folks. This one is neither erotic nor romantic. 'Sfunny, my first effort at blank verse is a lament. The title is quite literal, I'm afraid.

Tears for A Mail-Room Clerk

She had a bright and cheery smile for me
Each time I wandered by her place of work
Ashamed am I, I didn't know her name
While she considered me a treasured friend
I wondered, as I saw her go about
Delivering the interoffice mail
Why everyone she met, she seemed to like
Though few had ever noticed her at all
I learned some more about her life today,
They say she rode a bus for her commute.
She had two children that she raised alone,
and they, and work friends were her family.
And finally today I learned her name,
When she gave up her spirit, on that bus.

-- it was Tonja.
​

Comment or not. It's going to be awhile before I can deal any further with it.

 

[RhymeSmith]

OK. I'm back now, and I'm in a better mood.

I was really pissed at myself because, in spite of the fact that Tonja knew me on sight, and called me by name every time I walked by the mailroom (and I had to do that a lot, over the 12 years we were in that building), I never knew her name before she died. a days ago. It made me feel that I had somehow objectified, or devalued her. I know that I didn't, though. When we talked, it was face-to-face, about things that we had in common. Real conversation. Names were never needed, except for hailing someone.

I'm over that feeling of failure now. I can't fix it, and life will go on anyway.

There are a lot of folks at my old workplace who didn't feel it, who should feel it, and who should never get over it. That too, however, is beyond my power to change.

 

[RhymeSmith]

Another little romantic ditty

Heartache

Love of mine now, if you wander,
And your own way you must go,
Keep in mind my heart, don't squander
My love, for I need you so.

I must lead, I cannot follow,
Though you're worth my life and more,
If you choose to stand beside me
My arms are an open door.

If I lead in some direction
That you feel you cannot take,
When I sleep, I'll dream about you
And I'll cry when I'm awake;

Yes, my sweet, I love you dearly,
More than life itself, it seems,
You're the center of my cosmos
and the substance of my dreams.

- RhymeSmith
​

Not terribly erotic, I know.

 

[champagne1982]

Heartache
<snip>
- RhymeSmith

Not terribly erotic, I know.

Poetry from the heart, written with yearning and emotive descriptions may not be sexual but it can be erotic when you pause and imagine your beloved against you in the ultimate expression of love. We don't need to say it to imagine it.

 

[twelveoone]

Well, good poetry is all a matter of perception, don't you think? I post poetry mainly on the forums these days and not on the site index, but that's purely preference. It's easier to delete the contents of a thread post than it is to bother the site operators to delete a submission from the website, so it's just a method of personal control over my poems and stories and nothing sinister or snobbish.

In my opinion, labelling poetry posted here as "not good" because they're on a website that caters to erotica readers, closes your mind to the possibility that a jewel could be hiding in the tailings. I've bought a few poetry chapbooks and I've seen a lot more for sale in legitimate book stores, does that mean that vanity press poems or a book full of poetry based on one prize winning poem is better than many I've seen on this site? I don't think the book should be judged by its cover any more than character should be judged by appearance. To do so is unfair and not very wise.

First impressions are important, sure, but so are qualified judgements that are made in the course of a relationship. Many of literotica's poets are in a relationship (of sorts) with the site. We know that there are imminently qualified poets and writers who post work here and to say that doing so diminishes their skill and talent could leave a reader out of a potentially great experience.

It is also true that the nature of the site makes it possible to be more playful and experimental with poetry. I hope that this would only enhance the attractiveness of being an active member of the site rather than cause a reader's arse to slam shut and make them scurry out of the explorer window. To each his own, though. Even so, I figure definitions that quantify personal taste are simply opinions and not anything I can apply as a hard and fast fact to my own value judgements ... It's all way too individual for that.

I've seen quite a few, from respected publishers even, and then you read the dust jacket, poet works as an editor at the house, funded by this or that grant- this true Champ, I've never seen anything quite like some of the writers here (that were here?)
A shame, but that is the way it is. Emily Dickenson begins to take off 40 years after her death. Baudelaire too. Who knows who is here now.

I really am beginning to like you Champ, something happened...as if you stepped out from a shadow (excuse the chiche).

Ever read Baudelaire, RhymeSmith? You might find him interesting, pick a translation that rhymes. Sometimes he surprises.

 

[RhymeSmith]

Ever read Baudelaire, RhymeSmith? You might find him interesting, pick a translation that rhymes. Sometimes he surprises.

Nope. Heard the name in passing, but never actually read him. Found his bio on the Web tonight, though, and a site or two with English translations of his work. Read a couple - will likely read more, based on his fascination with Poe and his supposed influence on Lovecraft. Don't really "get" him yet, but I'll keep trying - at least for awhile.

 

[RhymeSmith]

Another bone from the graveyard of my mind

On Reading Your Letter

Do the words that you have written
tell of hunger to be free?
I will only keep a woman
if her heart belongs to me!

I have built for you no prison
nor have bound you with a chain,
if you truly feel so threatened
tell me, why do you remain?

Listen now, my fearful lover
try to understand it all -
I don't need a fawning servant
jumping at my beck and call.

Yes, it's true, my heart requires
dedication strong and true.
Come and be my love slave, just as
I'm a slave of love for you.

- RhymeSmith
​

 

[twelveoone]

Nope. Heard the name in passing, but never actually read him. Found his bio on the Web tonight, though, and a site or two with English translations of his work. Read a couple - will likely read more, based on his fascination with Poe and his supposed influence on Lovecraft. Don't really "get" him yet, but I'll keep trying - at least for awhile.

http://fleursdumal.org/


Oxford has a cheapie (price) Translated by James Mcgowan

To be honest, Baudelaire one of the few sonnet writers I like. The other ....

Hopkins

 

[sassynyc]

new here

hi all. i'm new to posting poetry on Lit. i'm not sure if this is the place to do it, but figured i'd introduce myself, and get familiar with the poet's forum. any helpful tips from fellow writers are welcome

thx

 

[Eluard]

hi all. i'm new to posting poetry on Lit. i'm not sure if this is the place to do it, but figured i'd introduce myself, and get familiar with the poet's forum. any helpful tips from fellow writers are welcome

thx

Howdy Sass — it might be better to start your own thread. And since this is a poetry forum, why not post a poem or two with it to say hello.

Welcome!

Eluard

 

[RhymeSmith]

hi all. i'm new to posting poetry on Lit. i'm not sure if this is the place to do it, but figured i'd introduce myself, and get familiar with the poet's forum. any helpful tips from fellow writers are welcome

thx

Hello and welcome! I started this thread as a means of getting familar with the culture here at Lit, but I don't post too regularly. Most folks here made me feel very welcome.

Feel free to use this thread for like purpose, if you want (including posting any poetry you want to share), or like Eluard says, you can start your own.

- Rhymesmith

 

[RhymeSmith]

New ballad

This one is kind of Dan Fogarty-ish. I visited my old place of employment not too long ago, and it caused an eruption of memories, not to mention feelings.

Retitled and here now.​

 

[RhymeSmith]

It's been ten days...

Since anyone posted to the Bistro.

What say ye now, ye cold of heart?
And tell me, are ye proud
That ye hath so successfully
Dispersed the friendly crowd

That used to meet there, by the bar
So often to partake
of fellowship convivial
and art for its own sake?

How does it feel to have destroyed
Another's happy home?
Was satisfaction gurarranteed
Now that the crowd is gone?

Pray, tell about your happiness
When pausing now to hark -
Is it so good to be alone
In bitter, quiet dark?

It's clear you didn't understand
I guess it's just as well
You couldn't be a part of that
While living in your hell

Because your heart and soul are small
You had to be unkind
And raise yourself above the rest
If only in your mind​

Sayonara.

- Rhymesmith.

 

[Safe_Bet]

There once was a poet named RhymeSmith
Who wrote words regarding a small tiff
When no one reacted
His words weren't redacted
Cuz everyone had moved past it, forthwith

 

[Epmd607]

sorry, Rhymesmithey, your poems are still rubbishey.

 

[warzone]

There once was a poet named RhymeSmith
Who wrote words regarding a small tiff
When no one reacted
His words weren't redacted
Cuz everyone had moved past it, forthwith

Sweet Safe_Bet wrote poems so sublime
And so witty they're worth one whole dime.
But, though, incompetent
Despite cruel intent,
Forum's darling clique's ladder still climbs.