James Smolens < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it wrote in message <snip Ah, Smolens! At last we have a full house of poetry-trolls. PJR Isn't it refreshing to see someone actively castigating Mike for spending too much time critiquing and commenting on others' poetry instead of spewing forth fountains of illiterate, unreadable garbage.  I suppose this group would be better if everyone posted poems on a daily basis. (Your Poem? Yeah it was great, real great. What about mine?  Great too??!! Here's another thousand for ya'.  ALL GREAT??  Wow) Daimon next he'll be taken to school for discussing the technical aspects of poetry on this news group. - Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -

(swollen-snip) Ah, wonderful. Swollen, wolkind, and rickfry show up the same day. gg You can choose to ignore the fact that this man has serious problems that need to be addressed in a caring, supportive environment, without additional harassment and aggravation, or you can choose to acknowledge the fact and  let us do what we have to do in private. Someone who used to post here Hey, first drafts are often the most pure. editing is like second thoughts, not from the Muse, if you catch my drift. I just try to keep up with the pen, sort of automatic, this craft is sort of creepy like that..the well of souls and all. Poe wrote Annabel Lee in one sitting. Un_title_d is good also..aint we all? arguere I have always felt claustrophobic within the confines of conventional speech. I write poetry because I want to laugh, scream, cry and chant all at once. When I surrender to this impulse I am calm and at peace. When I write, I am like a baboon moving out of sync with its reflected image as it dances on the ripples of an inner pond. In my search for truth, I pull stones from the depths as an act of unskipping. If I didn't write, all the tossed pebbles from the various collectives and institutions that rain down on my individual pool of spirit would soon fill it completely. I would hate to be the blank _expression_ that greets the thirsting angel who tumbles out of a cab in downtown Toronto, feeling like a futile kiss on the brow of the urban leper. With all her jingling accouterments, civilization can't buy a reason to birth her luminous potential - not without the poet struggling to embrace what is meaningful, as it zips between the paddles of ulterior motives like a ping pong ball in a Beijing tournament.   Sadly, the only poetry I've written thus far falls in the category of static interference. What keeps me writing is the conviction that there is a clear signal to be found and articulated. I post in this group in order to share the knowledge and experience of kindred spirits who, like myself, keep their fingers on the dial. Listening intently to the static sizzle, we are convinced that there is something out there worth recording. Something that will unskip, not only from the individual pond of the writer, but also from the ponds of a great many. It has always been the task of the writer to render sparkling waters and lush meadows from the mundane swamp of the common experience. Though I may not be adequate to the challenge, I never cease to challenge the inadequate. R.F.

Mike Billard < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it wrote in message my carefully considered estimation of you is that you suck. I appreciate the time and effort you have invested in developing this estimation. I am honored to have received so much of your attention. Thank you, James, for noticing I exist. Considering you make so few posts to aapc, I consider myself doubly blessed that one of your rare treats was directed my way. I will cherish your advice (you need to shut the fuck up more) for a very long time. Thank you, James.

next he'll be taken to school for discussing the technical aspects of poetry on this news group. Already happened.  Read Kenny.