Reviews from

Not Today

A blank verse contest entry

3 total reviews 
Comment from LisaMay
Excellent
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Your subtle message 'trump supporters are fools' did not escape me (I was trying to work out why you had indented some lines.)

I agree. Your poem is tinged with sadness, and even the sense of hope is chilled. "Save our fragile lives from unhinged fools" is our cry.

(I don't think 'sooth' is the right word - it probably should be 'soothe'.)

 Comment Written 08-Jan-2021


reply by the author on 08-Jan-2021
    Once again, thank you, Lisa. My seeing eye cat missed that one!

    I have a Robert Fitzgerald translation of the Iliad that uses next-line indentation when a thought ends mid-line, and I've always liked that idea. It probably works better on much long poems though.
Comment from Alli Johnston
Excellent
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Excellently said, thank you for sharing. This event was also a shattering of hope for me that 2021 would be a better year. He fueled so much hatred in this country I believe it will take an awful period of war to calm it down

 Comment Written 08-Jan-2021


reply by the author on 08-Jan-2021
    Thank you, Alli, for reading and commenting. I have hope that the violence we're seeing is being amplified by our 24/7 assault of information. Things are bad, but the number of seditious thugs is low, and ultimately inconsequential once their leader has lost his bully pulpit. So not a war, but it will take some time to calm things down I think.
Comment from Iza Deleanu
Excellent
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When politics hides behind a mask all the hope is lost: " Muzzled by a mask,
tangled in the lies born of hate,
even through this COVID fog of fear, a
renaissance of wonder will appear and
save our fragile lives from unhinged fools
(a narcissist's dream!), who blindly still
refuse to see that "great" means more than just an
emblazoned word on hapless hats." Thank you for sharimg and good luck with the contest.

 Comment Written 08-Jan-2021


reply by the author on 08-Jan-2021
    Thank you for reading and commenting, Iza. This poem also has a mask: a visual message hiding in plain sight. (I decided to ignore my better judgment, and so I've amended the author's note.)