poetry critical

online poetry workshop

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Welcome!

Welcome to Poetry Critical, an online poetry workshop. To post your own poetry you'll need to create a user id by typing a name and password in the box above and hitting 'New User'. If you just want to critique or jump into the discussion, however, you can go ahead and get started!

Poetry Critical 2.0

Hey guys, Donald here.

In a few weeks, this site will be 9 years old. 9 years! And I still know some of the earliest submissions by heart.

But, boy. That’s like 102 in web-years. So it’s time for something new. I’m building that something now with my nights-and-weekend minutes (and plenty of coffee). Buy me a cup?

Development updates from Twitter:

Follow @poetrycritical for more!

Random Poem:

Perhaps Your Love Got Lost In The Mail
SirBoggy

Dear Mr. President,
 1
 
 
Apparently,
 2
I would assume,
 3
by God’s decree,
 4
you were afforded the
 5
jurisdiction and authority
 6
to judge the one
 7
who gave me birth – Betty.
 8
 
 
        Notice I did not say, “mother.”
 9
 
 
You told her
 10
venomously
 11
with a flaming sword
 12
in hand that
 13
I was a child
 14
not a choice.
 15
        Thank God for investing the power
 16
        in you to secure my position on earth.
 17
 
 
However, Mr. President
 18
of God’s domain,
 19
trumpeter of the morality horn,
 20
I’m writing you because I  
 21
believe there might have been
 22
a slip-up in the mail.
 23
 
 
You see
 24
since the day
 25
I became a life
 26
“chosen”
 27
to roam the earth
 28
Betty has explained
 29
to me that I ,
 30
like she, do not have a choice
 31
or the pleasure of
 32
a childhood filled with
 33
mirth and the freedom to explore
 34
the fruits of reality
 35
pro-lifers seem to enjoy.
 36
 
 
Betty made it clear that fun was not a choice,
 37
our demographic was not a choice,
 38
the abuse I suffered from being a mistake was certainly not a choice
 39
that college was not a choice,
 40
a better life was not a choice,
 41
or rather, exchange “choice” for “option.”
 42
 
 
So again,
 43
I’m writing to tell you
 44
I think there’s been a problem
 45
with the mail because ever since
 46
you gave me life
 47
I received no compensation for being-born
 48
or all the birthday cards
 49
you must’ve sent me – celebrating my birth,
 50
which I counted on
 51
because no one in my family
 52
wanted to send me a card
 53
because no one in my family
 54
wanted to celebrate
 55
the physical manifestation
 56
of Betty promiscuous mistake;
 57
however, I assume you would
 58
as it was from a moral platform
 59
you argued murder
 60
or “abortion” rather,
 61
should be outlawed by the state.
 62
 
 
Yet, in all my years
 63
not one card did I receive
 64
not one hug did you warp around me
 65
to make me feel loved and safe…
 66
 
 
…no money was sent
 67
to compensate for me
 68
– Betty’s promiscuous mistake –
 69
to help me help myself
 70
so that I, like the privileged,
 71
and planned would not end up
 72
a child left behind – but nothing.
 73
 
 
Mr. President,
 74
preserver of Jesus’ words
 75
isn’t it ironic
 76
how you abandoned me
 77
like my real father-figure did?
 78
Oh well,
 79
I suppose I should not judge you
 80
like I am judged for being
 81
lower-class and poor;
 82
you were just trying to uphold
 83
the power God invested in you
 84
to be the leader of the morally justified free world.
 85
I mean,
 86
you were only doing
 87
what Jesus would’ve done,
 88
which made me always wonder
 89
is taking away the free-choice to abort,
 90
forgetting the child after it’s born
 91
and judging it for “not trying” to
 92
transcend its socio-economic class
 93
the Christian thing to do?
 94
 
 
P.S. Don’t worry, my lord, George the Second,
 95
I blame the lowly governmental branch known as the U.S. Postal service,
 96
not you.  Nor do I mean to imply that shit rolls up-hill.
 97

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