08-09-2011, 10:36 AM
One of the exercises I like to use is, take one of Shakespeare's sonnets, steal the end rhymes and write your own sonnet -- it's good practise and they usually end up better than Willy's 
I would hazard a guess that all the mods want to see some improvement in internet poetry in general -- I know I do, and wouldn't mind putting in a bit more effort to make it happen (as long as I'm not exclusively dealing with newbs, because that gets bloody painful even with the best intentions).
A fair number of the poems that have been posted in the mild crit forum would have been better off in a beginner's section, simply because then the commenter knows exactly what he/she is dealing with, experience-wise, and is more likely to be patient (not that anyone here is terribly impatient, but it's easier to set your pitch that way).
I don't know if there's any way to be selective about who comments on beginners' poetry, just to make sure that they're not given dreadful advice -- I've seen comments (not necessarily here) that claim some lofty superior knowledge merely by virtue of being a page ahead of the writer they're critiquing and, while I think it's good that once you learn a new skill you pass it on to others, I also think there's a danger of some commenters using such a forum for their own ego-stroking purposes. I don't know how to avoid that though.
I would hazard a guess that all the mods want to see some improvement in internet poetry in general -- I know I do, and wouldn't mind putting in a bit more effort to make it happen (as long as I'm not exclusively dealing with newbs, because that gets bloody painful even with the best intentions).
A fair number of the poems that have been posted in the mild crit forum would have been better off in a beginner's section, simply because then the commenter knows exactly what he/she is dealing with, experience-wise, and is more likely to be patient (not that anyone here is terribly impatient, but it's easier to set your pitch that way).
I don't know if there's any way to be selective about who comments on beginners' poetry, just to make sure that they're not given dreadful advice -- I've seen comments (not necessarily here) that claim some lofty superior knowledge merely by virtue of being a page ahead of the writer they're critiquing and, while I think it's good that once you learn a new skill you pass it on to others, I also think there's a danger of some commenters using such a forum for their own ego-stroking purposes. I don't know how to avoid that though.
It could be worse