Sunny day cemeteries
#3
(03-17-2014, 06:28 AM)PoetryAndPhysics Wrote:  Sunny day cemeteries are wonderful. (The first line is very weak. Show, don't tell, as John Galt said. Furthermore, the passive voices bores. See final comments for a fix?)
Skinny paths and tree groves,
leaves scattering rays into shade
like a morbid disco ball. (If you're going to use punctuation in this way, I would recommend having complete sentences. I love the disco ball image though, it works very well for me.)
Lawns to fall on and make grass angels,
or to mime catch with a dead uncle,
or just sprint childish circles for the heck of it. (Again, you either need a verb or don't put a period. "for the heck of it" feels too informal for this piece.)
Tombstones are personalized Roman ruins
whose runes tempt daydreams to a once boundless lifetime
of passions that burned for rhetoric and horseback. (This sentence seems superfluous - too abstract and too much of a hidden meaning..)
Bring a few chairs, cheese, and wine,
recline your legs, and bandy away (bandy - I do not think this word means what you think it means. This isn't a verb. Try someone like 'waste away.')
your days to the echoes of loved ones. (I like this line, and the way it completes the above line. It may be a little cliche, but I think it works.)

Uncle died. I loved him alive,
but now I feel nothing: am I diseased? (This is weak. You're telling again. 'I feel nothing' - what does that feel like? Find an strong imagery description to show me what you mean.)
Everyone chokes on tears of endless sorrow,
the drive down smelt of stale silence,
words said were soaked up by all but me. (You changed tense. Be wary of that. This sentence doesn't do much for me.. the timeline of what is 'happening' is confusing because of your tenses here and in the first stanza.)
A lonely, broken emptiness. (There is a little meaning here. Show, don't tell.)
I'm a freak, a leper with an antisocial bell
whose amygdala refuses to sit mourning.
If mother knew, she'd send me away.
A little concrete window, a barbwire basketball court.
I'd be a zombie, feasting on other pathological brains.
But my jollies would forever return to tombstones,
to a wilderness born in the shadows of a dieing sunset. (These last four lines have more to them, but be concise with your words. Abstractions like 'jollies' just serve to confuse.
I like most of the first stanza and less of the second. You tend to start your stanza/thought by stating something, and then proceeding to use your imagery to describe it. Don't state. Just go straight into the true meaning and images that you're trying to convey and your poetry will be more effective. It may take a bit of wrestling to figure out how to do that comfortably, but I think it will help you greatly. I look forward to what you do with this one!

For example:
Sunny day cemeteries with
skinny paths and tree groves,
the leaves scattering rays into shade
like a morbid disco ball.

This is much stronger and will pull the reader straight into the scene.
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Messages In This Thread
Sunny day cemeteries - by PoetryAndPhysics - 03-17-2014, 06:28 AM
RE: Sunny day cemeteries - by John Galt - 03-17-2014, 08:16 PM
RE: Sunny day cemeteries - by MadisonDiem - 03-18-2014, 05:16 AM
RE: Sunny day cemeteries - by PoetryAndPhysics - 03-18-2014, 06:12 AM



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