Full Rewrites

[The Karate Kid Part 2]

Does it help the person your critiqueing
to rewrite their poem completely?
Would it show what they could be doing,
or is that unhelpful?

What I'm saying is 
is it better to just give em' a little love tap
rather than go rough on them?
It's their decision if they want the crit or not
and I'm not necessarily a teacher,
I just give my honest opinion.

On one hand, whether it's bad or good 
is for the creator to decide between
but on the other, I want to be able
to not poison the people I crit
with my stupidity,
especially beginners.

What is your process, you,
the viewer of this post??????


What do you think????

From what I can tell from reading some poems and critiques on here and thinking about them, the best thing to do is point out errors that are apparently unintentional. Spelling mistakes, grammar errors, etc. Usually a concept or idea is intentional and therefore I don't think it is worth mentioning. Most people (most) want constructive feedback, and constructive feedback is usually about a mistake someone has made and missed in the edit. Sometimes it's not so easy to work out what was meant and what not. But, I suppose that is part of the skill of giving constructive criticism. I remember reading your poem called Afterlife, and I was confused by the tenses... however, I did also appreciate writing a poem about being dead would raise tense issues and wondered if it were done on purpose. Was it a stroke of genius to mess around with the tenses? By the end I was sure it was unintentional (I could, still, be wrong). Basically, I think feedback (giving it) should be mindful of what the poet intended first and foremost and then figuring out if there is anything you can add to better realizing that intention.

Also, I am not sure entirely re-writing a poem is in the recipient's best interest. They want to find their own voice, not yours.