Revision Process

[shemthepenman]

I find it almost incredible to hear that others don't think about the author as they read -- I think about the author almost continuously. In fact, I like to read a bio of the author before I even get into the work. I love to see how a person's life experience and training could be impacting the choices that they make as an author. Topics, recurring themes, word choice...I can see the person reflected in all of these things; that's part of what makes poetry interesting to me. I just read a great article about E. E. Cummings and his background, in fact: http://harvardmagazine.com/2005/03/the-r...-cumm.html

yes, but, the complete works of EE Cummings could have been spontaneously reproduced by a random word generator. would that honestly detract from the merit of what is written?

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 i often read poems on here that i really like and the personality/voice is unique and interesting. i don't critique these poems. i enjoy them.

You should tell them what's working for you. Positive feedback can be just as useful as negative. Passive reading doesn't help us be better authors.

true. and i tried to footnote that this isn't strictly true. i just meant if i read a poem that has a unique and interesting voice, i can enjoy that part of it. i didn't really explain this very well.