Not Everyone is Going to Agree

What I have learned in my several years of writing poetry on a daily basis.

What I have learned about having others critique my poetry!!!

There is so much to learn in terms of what others say about my poetry. At first, I must take a second to remove myself from the work and realize that the critic only means to help not harm me. I must also realize that their opinion of what poetry is, is only one person's point of view on what poetry should look like. The last thing I must take into account is that not everyone likes to hear about the subjects that I like to write about in my unique form of free verse poetry.

The main thing for a poet to remember is that it is not what others get from the poetry or whether or not they like the poetry -- it matters only what you the poet get out of the poetry. There are many poets around that are afraid to even share their poetry for fear of rejection. The poets that share their poetry here are courageous in that they are sharing a little of themselves and their inner struggles with the reader. I have a feeling that this may scare some because the reader is simply not ready to look into their own struggles through life.

I write poetry to get through my suicidal episodes in the most sane and safe way possible. This is my way that I get the worst out on paper or on screen. This makes the pain of the emotional distress from becoming out of control and landing myself on some mental ward because I am a danger to myself (and/or others).

If you want to critique me that is great. I sometimes do change a few things here and there. Just know that I am not going to take quick action to change anything if I feel the emotion is gone then I cannot change the poem, it is a personal choice of mine. I don't want to neither do I think it is unhealthy to dwell on the bad.

I know that my husband is a different type of writers and can dwell on a haiku for months and still feelsit is not right. Other poets are the same. Fortunately, this is not me! Dwell on the past is more hurtful and locking into my deep sadness.

Life's much too short too short too waste on one or two poems. I use poetry to get it off my mind. I often go back to the poetry although I am always interested in what you the reader gets from the poem both artistically and grammatically. Just remember that free verse is a legitimate form of poetry.