01-12-2026, 06:49 PM
I just came to the klatch to post something about chickens and am confronted with actual substantive discussion. This is some seriously powerful coffee you're drinking.
I got recruited to pigpen because I was posting on deep underground poetry and heslopean (that's probably spelled wrong but I'm on my phone so it's hard to look up the correct spelling) and I got to talking (as I quite liked his poetry) and he mentioned the pigpen site and I popped over and read some of Leanne's stuff and that sold me. It's a lot of work but that is one method of poaching people that actually works.
As far as critiquing and rules I'm not going to comment on that because I was never really into doing it. But I always respected the site for offering it and considered it a valuable form of feedback for many people learning to write. As a student I never listened to the teachers or their lectures, I just sat in the back and read the textbook and maybe checked related books out of the library. So the way I learned to write was to read lots of poetry, find some stuff that really affected me, and try to write stuff like it until I wrote stuff that affected me as much. That's another form of feedback. Obviously, it's probably best to do both but my brain isn't wired that way. I do think talking with other poets and participating in challenges where you write to the same subject and get to see how a lot of other people interpret it is very helpful and I think even more important is to engage in creative wordplay and writing where you can relax and not feel stressed about doing something so profound as writing. poetry. ? Those are the main reasons I like pigpen. That and the divergent topics you discuss with people here that seem to have nothing to do with poetry.
And... I've been taking care of my neighbor's chickens the past 6 months because she's awaiting back surgery and it's gotten where it's pretty hard for her to move enough to really take care of them. She has three hand-raised chickens and one of them runs up to me and likes to be stroked on its back which delights me no end. One of them lays white eggs, one of them lays brown eggs, and one of them lays blue eggs. Yes, blue eggs! Her name is "America". I can really appreciate someone who names their chicken America.
Anyway, it's really nice messing around in pigpen again and interacting with all you wonderful people from the legendary past. Not that I don't intend to interact with some people from the legendary present as well.
I got recruited to pigpen because I was posting on deep underground poetry and heslopean (that's probably spelled wrong but I'm on my phone so it's hard to look up the correct spelling) and I got to talking (as I quite liked his poetry) and he mentioned the pigpen site and I popped over and read some of Leanne's stuff and that sold me. It's a lot of work but that is one method of poaching people that actually works.
As far as critiquing and rules I'm not going to comment on that because I was never really into doing it. But I always respected the site for offering it and considered it a valuable form of feedback for many people learning to write. As a student I never listened to the teachers or their lectures, I just sat in the back and read the textbook and maybe checked related books out of the library. So the way I learned to write was to read lots of poetry, find some stuff that really affected me, and try to write stuff like it until I wrote stuff that affected me as much. That's another form of feedback. Obviously, it's probably best to do both but my brain isn't wired that way. I do think talking with other poets and participating in challenges where you write to the same subject and get to see how a lot of other people interpret it is very helpful and I think even more important is to engage in creative wordplay and writing where you can relax and not feel stressed about doing something so profound as writing. poetry. ? Those are the main reasons I like pigpen. That and the divergent topics you discuss with people here that seem to have nothing to do with poetry.
And... I've been taking care of my neighbor's chickens the past 6 months because she's awaiting back surgery and it's gotten where it's pretty hard for her to move enough to really take care of them. She has three hand-raised chickens and one of them runs up to me and likes to be stroked on its back which delights me no end. One of them lays white eggs, one of them lays brown eggs, and one of them lays blue eggs. Yes, blue eggs! Her name is "America". I can really appreciate someone who names their chicken America.
Anyway, it's really nice messing around in pigpen again and interacting with all you wonderful people from the legendary past. Not that I don't intend to interact with some people from the legendary present as well.
all this useless beauty... but what the hell, why not?