Comments on: The Poet Says "Happy New Year!" In His Old Fogey Sweet Way http://www.worldclasspoetryblog.com/the-poet-says-happy-new-year-in-his-old-fogey-sweet-way/01/01/2008/ Commentary On 21st Century Poetics Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:13:20 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Jim Murdoch http://www.worldclasspoetryblog.com/the-poet-says-happy-new-year-in-his-old-fogey-sweet-way/01/01/2008/comment-page-1/#comment-93 Jim Murdoch Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:11:41 +0000 http://worldclasspoetryblog.com/the-poet-says-happy-new-year-in-his-old-fogey-sweet-way/01/01/2008/#comment-93 One of the hardest things for young poets to assess is how good their own poetry is; they're too close to it and they understand exactly what they meant when they put pen to paper so of course they think they're better than what they really are. That's where the Web is the best thing since sliced bread. There are sites out there like Zoetrope when you can post your work and yet immediate feedback from other poets some with more experience than you and some with more. The best thing about these sites is that they expect you to return the favour and that's where you start to learn about what works when you have to say why a particular poem doesn't work for you. The only people I had when I was starting were the editors of the magazines I submitted to and some of them were very kind in taking the time to point out the errors of my ways. One of the hardest things for young poets to assess is how good their own poetry is; they’re too close to it and they understand exactly what they meant when they put pen to paper so of course they think they’re better than what they really are.

That’s where the Web is the best thing since sliced bread. There are sites out there like Zoetrope when you can post your work and yet immediate feedback from other poets some with more experience than you and some with more. The best thing about these sites is that they expect you to return the favour and that’s where you start to learn about what works when you have to say why a particular poem doesn’t work for you.

The only people I had when I was starting were the editors of the magazines I submitted to and some of them were very kind in taking the time to point out the errors of my ways.

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