08-21-2023, 09:57 PM
I think this issue has come up a lot recently in different contexts. I have come to realize that crits are like data points. You can get some information from one point (of view) but it can give a very distorted picture and isn't always that helpful. The other problem is when a poem gets lots of suggestions the tendency is to try to treat each suggestion separately when, and this was my breakthrough, they should be taken as a set to learn which issues are brought up by multiple people and then focus on those things. More often than not, it seems, it will be your favorite part of the poem and it will kill you to change or cut it. However, if only one person gets stuck on a part of the poem, and you feel it is an important element of your vision have the confidence to leave it in. Most of us will never write the perfect poem.