Well, Chat Week was a tremendous success, and PoetryPlease would like to thank all those who contributed throughout the week. Without you all, Chat Week would not have been possible. Now that the week is over, however, don’t think that you don’t need to stop by the PoetryPlease Chat Room anymore. We will be having regular prompts, shares, and battles, so don’t forget to stop in for your regular poetry check-up!

Chat Week: Day 7 Report

The major event of the day was a Q&A with `PoeticWar. We definitely had plenty to talk about with James and a lot of people turned up for the event. Due to the length of the interview, the transcript is included at the end of this news article. It’s definitely worth your perusal, so please give it a read through.

After the Q&A with `PoeticWar, the room began to share some of their poetry. This spontaneous share was participated in by a few deviants, including: ~Anubian, *SSDesigns, *Awesomelylostfishies, and *PunknEra (we hope we didn’t miss anybody).

Then, the room decided to start Battle Hour a little early. It began with a face-off between :devasomelylostfishies: and *WhiteDivinity. Ultimately, *Awesomelylostfishies forfeited a chance to win by leaving the room, but that doesn’t mean *WhiteDivinity’s poem shouldn’t be revealed. The battle was to write a poem describing a scene using mostly shapes to describe it (such as triangles, squares, diamonds, etc). Here’s the resulting poem:

I lay back against the corner of my containment,
So cold was everything around me in this container.
This cubical piece of trash surrounding me;
I cried out in dejection and then all went silent again.

The tears running down my face wouldn’t stop falling;
For my efforts were meaningless and juvenile.
My tears, echoing, as it hits the squared tile of steel;
Bolted down with semi-circles of rejection, shockingly terrifying.

My arms lay outside my containment; they were small enough to escape.
Useless mind pushing between the two cylinders like bars;
Ooze pushing through the cracks of where it connected to the top;
Almost dark enough where I couldn’t see myself anymore.

Fate was cruel to me, giving me useless hope,
As my hand dangles around the handle of a rectangular door;
Triangular figures etched into the door, their points contained poison;
Poisonous thorns that cursed at my hand and attacking me.

Darkness closing in more around me… is this the end?
This isn’t home to me… what should I call this place?
Hell....No, hell would show no mercy for my soul;
Though one word strikes all the hearts of men.

Prison… hell has no hold on this place.

Our second battle took place between =bewareofthesnowman and ~synapticattack. Since the previous battle never quite got to come to fruition, they were given the same topic, to describe a scene using shapes. Both poems submitted were so good that they should both be shared here, even though =bewareofthesnowman was chosen as the winner for doing a more thorough job of sticking to the theme of the battle. ~synapticattack’s poem was:


She loomed in the doorway, abstracting light
ancient buxom madonna silhouetted
with a sundial-like figure.
Every step and her frown fell closer to the floor
like melting tits of women featured in
National Geographic.
Her own were pendulous things
bags of bulbous cysts, constellations of scars
which I could trace my name in,
the veins were tributaries
or beckoning blue hands
around nipples that resembled stones
on easter island.
Her confidence sunk into the floor
in a puddle of uncertainty beneath bright light.
Her faults and flaws were like the dents and dings
on a chevette or gremlin.
She tried smirking but the mask folded over shattered lips
like a soggy 100 dollar bill. At one time she was beautiful,
but now her flesh was a desert
hanging loose on her shoulders, her scalp a tundra,
layered quilts of blemishes, concaved where
every crippling truth left craters.

=bewareofthesnowman’s winning entry was:

A chalk ring, bright against the blackboard.
Is he expected to believe
that is the shape of the world, with its sine-wave hills
and the concrete cubes we've built on top?
Perhaps we wish it is
in those recurring dreams in which the universe's teeth -
all equilateral - tessalate just right. No scalene molars
are allowed in this vision.
Confused, he pokes a finger to the back of his mouth.

Our third battle took place between ~Synith and ~shadowgeist. They were asked to write a poem describing a car crash in the moment, but were asked not to use car/vehicle words, or the word crash itself anywhere in the poem. The focus was on the sounds, lights, and objects involved. ~Synith won with the following entry:

I'm smoking to no song with my foot revving engines like a preacher; she is my bible this Sunday. Only Sunday.
The distance isn't so far at 120mph when you don't give a shit. THIS IS NO ACCIDENT.

I see the pole ahead and I don't slow the madness in my head, the tires below are ripping the wind and suddenly it stops.
A thousand shards are still like freezer-burn and propel their thorns my flesh. I'm flipped, flying, diving and dancing my death; I wait for the asphalt and toss my burning cigarette into the window. She'll explode, I'm sure.
It flips like Ma's cakes on the griddle, digs nails into the road, Red paint separates from steel.
THIS IS NO ACCIDENT.

I am left in blood.

And thus, Chat Week ended. But the fun does not stop there. We still have our regular Saturday Share at 9pm GMT (4pm EST) which has always been a success. We also hope to keep battles going regularly, possibly even developing a ranking system to make it even more competitive. We also plan to hold regular Q&A’s, probably on Sunday’s. We would love feedback from you all on ways we could make the chat room better and activities you’d like to see performed.

IMPORTANT: You WANT to read this!

Also, PoetryPlease would like to compile a list of all the poems that were written as a result of the prompts and battles that have since been submitted as deviations. We’d like to feature all these in an upcoming news article. If you have one, or know someone who has, please note us with a link to each poem and preferably a description of the prompt for which it was written. Please put “Chat Week Poem” in the subject line of your note. Thanks!

Transcript from Q&A with `PoeticWar

<unknEra> /Topic. Welcome to Chat Week! We are having a Q&A with PoeticWar. This is how it all works: PoetryPlease will moderate. If you have a question for PoeticWar, please "raise your hand" (indicated by typic shift+6 "^") and PoetryPlease will let you know when it's your turn to speak. In the meantime, please try to avoid side comments and conversation. Thanks!
<oetryPlease> dammin
<oetryPlease> *dammit!
** Topic changed by PoetryPlease on 05/16/08 22:01 GMT
<oetryPlease> hahaha
<oetryPlease> ok, so, on that note, who's ready to get started?
*MaskedVengeance is.
<oeticWar> PoeticWar: y r u such a dickhead!
<MaskedVengeance> haha
<oetryPlease> you didn't raise your hand! tsk tsk
<oeticWar> sorry
<MaskedVengeance> ^
<oetryPlease> go ahead maskedvengeance (I'm thinking I'm going to regret saying that...)
<MaskedVengeance> In your time as a GD, what was the worst lit DD-related insult you had to put up with? _{Oh, and also... Will yuu marreee mee JAEMZ?}
<MaskedVengeance> (if you received any, that is).
<oeticWar> DD-related insult?
<oeticWar> whadda you mean?
<MaskedVengeance> as in, if someone was not pleased with a DD choice you made
<oeticWar> i don't think i ever received anything like that
<oeticWar> nor did anyone ever comment to the effect that a deviation was unworthy on the deviation itself
<MaskedVengeance> awesome. Question answered.
<oetryPlease> First of all, James, I'm probably the person that knows the least about you here (unfortunately), but assuming I'm not, can you tell the room a little bit about yourself?
<oeticWar> er i guess
<oeticWar> insert "my name is james and i'm an alcoholic" joke
<oeticWar> here goes
<oeticWar> my name is James, I'm 21 and I write poetry and dislike cheese.
<oetryPlease> Why do you dislike cheese?
<sickofpissingabout> all cheese?
<oeticWar> cheese beat me when i was a child
<Negated> PoetryPlease: what's to like about cheese
<oeticWar> actually i have strange rules about cheese
<oeticWar> i like it melted
<oeticWar> on pizzas, say
<oeticWar> and i like it in the occasional sandwich
<oeticWar> with pickle
<Negated> ^
<oetryPlease> PoeticWar: So, as everyone probably knows by now, you used to be a Lit GD. How long has it been that you've been out of the GD business?
<oeticWar> umm quite a while now. i'm not entirely sure
<oeticWar> must be 4 months or so i guess
<oeticWar> maybe longer!
<oetryPlease> What made you give it up?
<oeticWar> i didn't get a choice in the matter
<oeticWar> and we don't really have time to go into [that].
<oetryPlease> ok, fair enough. We wouldn't really want to spend a lot of time on that anyway. But it's fair to say that you wanted to be a GD for longer if that was possible?
<oeticWar> no, not really
<oeticWar> i quickly became disillusioned with the scope of the capabilities dA offers literature
<oeticWar> are you recording these answers for an article incidentally?
<oetryPlease> haha, could be, would you like me to *bleep* anything out?
<MaskedVengeance> ^
<oeticWar> yes the following --
***bleeping ensues***
<oetryPlease> could you elaborate on that "scope of literature" if possible?
<oeticWar> hm sure
<oeticWar> as a GD i found it impossible to get anything positive done for lit
<oeticWar> besides endless pointless competitions
<oeticWar> where subs were the only real prizes
<oeticWar> and endless vague little improvements
<Negated> ^
<oeticWar> that actually weren't anything of the sort
<oeticWar> meanwhile dA staff concentrated on rubbish like the dA 'rints for lit'
<oeticWar> which actually did nothing that wasn't already possible
<oeticWar> and more pointless convolutions to the site's design
<oetryPlease> were there any big improvements you were trying to make?
<oeticWar> i was keen on trying to sort out a prints system on dA similar to that of lulu
<oeticWar> we managed to get some things sorted like improved critique-wanted settings etc
<oetryPlease> Wow, that could have been a significant advancement
<oeticWar> yes but that basically won't happen -- at least any time soon
<oeticWar> for reasons i can't really go into
<oetryPlease> ok, no prob. I believe maskedvengeance had a question
<MaskedVengeance> Yeah. Veering away from dA and more onto you personally, how long have you been into poetry, and what first got you into it?
<oeticWar> i started off at about 15 writing terrible knock-offs of Paradise Lost
<oeticWar> I wrote a 34 page 'epic' called Paradise Shattered, in fact, which was abominably bad
<oeticWar> i'm not sure what first prompted me to start with the whole poetry thing
<oeticWar> probably i thought 'hey I'm good at rhyming, this poetries stuff is easy!'
<MaskedVengeance> Question answered, I think.
<oetryPlease> So, when did you see an improvement in your writing, after that abominably bad "Paradise Shattered"?
<oeticWar> the biggest help for me was starting to read poetry with any kind of regularity or attentiveness -- i started buying anthologies of contemporary poetry, then moved on to single collections from poets. what also helped immensely was finding a few places that offered consistent critique, and told me where to improve (and that what i was writing definitely needed improvement!)
<GoddessImbrium> ^
<oetryPlease> Were those local places to you, or dA places?
<oeticWar> internet sites other than dA, mostly
<oeticWar> dA simply doesn't offer much in terms of critique
<oetryPlease> any you would recommend for others seeking feedback?
<oeticWar> hm, well
<oeticWar> most of the dA crowd wouldn't function well on most workshops, as they are much harsher and short on the praise
<oeticWar> the one i started out on was the Poetry Free for All which you can see here [link]
<oeticWar> it's not everyone's cup of tea, and rightly so
<oetryPlease> Do you think harsh critique should be taken by everyone, or do you think a critique should be tailored to the author?
<oeticWar> i think critique should be tailored to the poem
<oeticWar> on dA it's a different issue as there's a tremendous variety in ability
<oeticWar> if you post somewhere like pffa, though, it's the poet's responsibility to make sure they are ready to receive whatever they receive
<oeticWar> you will get harsh critique in a lot of places, inevitably
<oeticWar> in the end you have to learn to distinguish which is mean-spirited rubbish and which is the painful truth
<oetryPlease> Do you do a lot of critiquing around dA?
<oeticWar> not anymore -- i used to do a great deal, but rarely find the time now
<oeticWar> it's often the case that advanced critique is frequently met with hostility here
<oeticWar> but that shouldn't discourage those looking to offer it
<oeticWar> more to the point, i find myself increasingly ambivalent towards the value of 'workshopping' in general
<oeticWar> though most of what might go on on dA might not quite qualify as that
<oetryPlease> Do you feel you may be detracting from those "advancements" that you wanted on dA by not participating and setting the example?
<oeticWar> the advancements need to come in the way of site design and orientation
<oeticWar> you can't really set an example for anyone on dA -- the userbase is too various, clique-set and isolated in many ways
<oeticWar> a great proportion of the userbase don't even know what the signs ^ or @ mean, let alone who their respective GDs are
<oeticWar> not to mention that the occasional critique (as a way of setting examples) is like pissing at a monsoon when it comes to comparing to the droves of mindless yesmen and praise-mongers that lurk here
<oetryPlease> Speaking of cliches, did you find that being a GD set you on a pedestle that simply resulted in too many false friends and pointless "I love your poem" type comments?
<oeticWar> false friends and "omg i luv ur pome' comments are dA's bread and butter
<oetryPlease> but it makes you appreciate the real ones that much more, I suppose?
<MaskedVengeance> ^
<oeticWar> maybe, but the internet is tricky in that respect isn't it
<oetryPlease> I mean genuine, more so than real
<oeticWar> finding likeminded people to share comments and thoughts on your artform which is an integral part of developing
<oeticWar> and dA did help me with that back in the beginning
<oeticWar> but fewer and fewer serious-minded writers find this place tolerable
<oeticWar> (so it seems to me)
<oeticWar> the ones that do rarely actually participate in the 'da community'
<oetryPlease> So you did find some integral members of dA that helped you develop your craft?
<oeticWar> well
<oeticWar> more accurately, i found encouragement and indiscriminate praise to begin with
<oeticWar> but it was encouragement and indsicriminate praise from people who could use slightly longer words
<oeticWar> and so this seemed, naturally, to hold more currency
<oeticWar> though really that can be just as harmful
<oeticWar> in the end i shared out time between here and those other places, and started to get a grip on the whole poetry thing
<oeticWar> but there are people here whose opinions i value very much
<oeticWar> and who still help me out
<oeticWar> like Negated there
<oeticWar> who has to sit through endless drafts of my poems
<oetryPlease> It sounds like your time on dA has jaded you a little, or perhaps it was your time as GD?
<oetryPlease> MaskedVengeance: would you like to ask your question?
<MaskedVengeance> Yes! ...Many people on dA seem to say that they write poetry or prose for themselves, yet they still upload it. Similarly, many ask for critique but then shudder when they receive it. Why do you think so many seem to contradict themselves in this way? (yeesh, that sounds almost as bad as an exam question).
<oeticWar> well it's fairly simple i guess -- people are rarely ready to admit that what they're really looking for is approval to feel good about themselves
<oeticWar> to put it more complexly -- i suppose we all look to reinvent ourselves in the eyes of others, so as to realise out own selves in a different light. art is all about that -- the opportunity to see ourselves as we could be, or may yet become
<oeticWar> ^our own
<MaskedVengeance> would you say you did that when you first started on dA? Or were you more ready to accept any critique you may have eventually received (among the praise mongers) from the word go?
<oeticWar> oh i was as bad as any when i started out
<oeticWar> probably worse, because despite my terrible poetry, i was a clever bastard
<oeticWar> so anyone looking to critique me was in for an argument they wouldn't win
<oeticWar> despite the fact they were eminently correct
<oetryPlease> Do you think poems written for oneself are better left on our PCs, or do you think it's more a matter of more people using the "Critique Discouraged" option?
<oeticWar> if you write a poem solely for yourself, inevitably you *won't* put it on dA
<oeticWar> simply because you won't feel the need to
<WhiteDivinity> ^
<oeticWar> if you put it on dA you are admitting, if only in a small way, that you are seeking an audience outside yourself
<oetryPlease> Go ahead WhiteDivinity
<WhiteDivinity> Do you believe that poetry is a seperate category from literature itself?
<oeticWar> no
<MaskedVengeance> ^
<oeticWar> traditionally 'oetry' is a subcategory of 'literature'
<WhiteDivinity> traditionally....yes, but isn't poetry labeled as art as well?
<oeticWar> sure
<oeticWar> so is literature
<oeticWar> but this is just semantics in the end -- or at best, questions of genre
<WhiteDivinity> .....okay, that answered my question.
<oetryPlease> What comments do you have on the subject of "emo" or "angst" poetry?
<oeticWar> i don't really have any comments
<oeticWar> i hesitate to call it poetry
<oeticWar> it's so disparate from the tradition and culture of poetry and art in general
<oetryPlease> well, that's a comment, is it not?
<oeticWar> maybe
<oeticWar> i mean, i see little worth commenting on, in the end
<oeticWar> emo & angst "poetry" seems more fit of a societal study than critical theory
<oeticWar> *fit for
<oetryPlease> I've hazarded in the past to compare this "emo" art to song lyrics (the pop culture type), what do you think about that?
<inspiredimperfection> ^
<oeticWar> well...i don't know
<oeticWar> compare in what way?
<oetryPlease> As in, they may better fit into the category of "song lyrics" than poetry
<oeticWar> the important distinction might be
<oeticWar> that pop lyricists often write any old crap to fit their music
<oetryPlease> precisely
<oeticWar> if somerthing being hailed as poetry looks similar to something written without any effort or thought whatsoever
<oeticWar> then that tells you enough in itself
<oeticWar> -r
<oetryPlease> Ok MaskedVengeance, you may ask your question.
<MaskedVengeance> Okay... I'm presuming you write more poetry than prose. If so, what do you prefer about poetry that gives it the edge over prose, in terms of your writing of it?
<oeticWar> well, they're just completely different beasts in the end
<Negated> ^
<oeticWar> even the prose poem is essentially very different to a bit of prose (in my mind)
<oeticWar> it's difficult to pin down the reasons without some kind of exhaustive commentary
<oeticWar> or without resorting to generalisations
<oeticWar> like 'the poem is more compressed'
<MaskedVengeance> Okay. I won't push you for more, then.
<oeticWar> well -- sometimes it isn't
<oeticWar> 'the poem is more sonically aware'
<oeticWar> sometimes it isn't
<oeticWar> so it's a tricky question
<MaskedVengeance> I'm good at asking those.
<oeticWar> in the end i don't choose one or the other
<oeticWar> i write and use form consciously
<oeticWar> so what comes out is quite easily labelled as poetry
<oeticWar> i don't care what people call it, though
<oetryPlease> inspiredimperfection: You had a question?
<inspiredimperfection> yes How do fairly new writers know they are beginning to cross over to the "Talented/Skilled" side. How do/can they gauge their writing being involved in this (DA) environment, in your opinion?
<oeticWar> god, that's really tricky
<inspiredimperfection> sorry
<oeticWar> how does anyone gauge their ability?
<oeticWar> inevitably you have to have a gargantuan ego
<oeticWar> and just hope that some day your ability measures up to it
<MaskedVengeance> lol
<oeticWar> equally, you have to have continual self-doubt
<oeticWar> which is a horrible combination for any human being
<oeticWar> but a very good one for good artists
<oeticWar> all i can say is to seek out published poetry and see what's available
<oeticWar> read critically
<oeticWar> and read yourself critically
<oeticWar> demand great things of yourself and you may get them
<inspiredimperfection> ooh inspirational words
<inspiredimperfection> thank you
<oetryPlease> Negated, would you like to ask your question?
<Negated> PoeticWar: what're your thoughts on metered poetry / more traditional forms?
<oeticWar> Negated: i often like it
<oeticWar> ./them
<oeticWar> but i wonder how much scope there is for development and originality in them
<oeticWar> the metre vs free verse thing is seen as a duologic in history now
<oeticWar> to the effect that
<oeticWar> you have old tradition = metre
<oeticWar> old radicalism = free verse
<oeticWar> and now new radicalism = metre (!)
<oetryPlease> lol
<oeticWar> but this is missing out the point that metre and free verse are very simplistic coverings for the poetry underneath
<Negated> and then new new radicalism - free verse again!
<oeticWar> maybe, but i suspect that's not going to happen
<oeticWar> much as new formalists might want it to
<Negated> hehe
<oetryPlease> What are your plans for your own poetry/prose. Are you seeking publication?
<oeticWar> i'm fairly well published in lit journals in the UK
<oeticWar> i don't know what's next for me
<oeticWar> maybe a chapbook, maybe a first collection
<oeticWar> i don't know when or with who
<oeticWar> i'm in no rush
<oetryPlease> have you utilized lulu yourself? And if so, would you recommend self-publishing?
<oeticWar> we used to use lulu to publish Mimesis (the poetry journal i edit) (see www.mimesispoetry.com)
<inspiredimperfection> w00t pluggin
<oeticWar> but it's expensive and they frequently cock up their printing
<oeticWar> i wouldn't self-publish my own poetry
<oeticWar> unless i had something really weird on my hands that no one else would touch!
<oeticWar> self-publication in general isn't such a bad idea, though
<oeticWar> but it does lead to a lot of people just publishing their poems without really knowing what they're doing
<oetryPlease> Have you gone through the process of trying to find a publisher?
<oeticWar> in poetry one doesn't really 'find a publisher'
<oeticWar> that's a rather novelistic idea
<oeticWar> there's a fairly defined set of rungs in the ladder that a lot of poets take
<oeticWar> you get your poems published in little magazines
<oeticWar> then in some big magazines
<oeticWar> then maybe you win a prize
<oeticWar> at the same time you might publish a chapbook
<oeticWar> then, eventually, you might approach a publisher (or they approach you) and get a first collection deal
<oeticWar> this usually happens on the strength of both your reputation and the poetry itself
<oeticWar> currently i have no need to find a book publisher, as i don't have a book to publish
<oeticWar> though i may do towards the end of the year
<oetryPlease> Have you run into the problem of sending out poems for magazine publication and then received multiple offers where all wanted exclusive rights to publish that poem?
<oeticWar> no -- because if you simultaneously submit it's your duty to inform the other magazines when your poem is accepted in one
<oeticWar> invariably the magazine will ask for exclusive rights -- that's what they do
<oetryPlease> Did anybody else have a question?
<oisonedrose> ^
<oetryPlease> poisonedrose: go ahead
<oisonedrose> at uni, one our creative writing fellows insisted on us carrying a notepad at all times, in case we suddenly found some inspiration. do you do anything similar or do you prefer to reflect back on any experiences when you're in a certain environment?
<oeticWar> we were told the same in my first year of university
<oeticWar> and had to do so to fulfill one of our assignments
<oeticWar> but i don't carry one around with me, no
<oeticWar> i do write things down in a notebook i keep at home occasionally though
<oeticWar> but i write from my imagination and rarely from what i directly see
<oisonedrose> ah, okay. thanks
<oeticWar> if i poem an experience, i tend to embellish to a fair degree
<oisonedrose> what uni did you go to?
<oeticWar> poisonedrose: i am just finishing my third year at the UEA in Norwich
<oeticWar> (university of east anglia)
<oeticWar> i'm studying for an MA in poetry next year
<oetryPlease> Well, my internet seems unreliable at the moment. We [should] wrap up.
<oeticWar> nice talking to you guys
<oisonedrose> take care james
<thecoolbeane> goodnight PoeticWar
<inspiredimperfection> PoeticWar: awww, well thanks for the Q&A, that was fun drilling you