Ray, I'm intrigued by your comment. As a new user here, I was hoping for more of a platform where constructive feedback would be exchanged back and forth on each poem - but it seems to me that the only time others comment is to say something congratulatory or nice. Maybe I'm not reading enough comments, as this is a great discussion thread. But that's what I see.

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

i used to be a pebble.

Comment is about Old As Rock (blog)

Original item by d.knape

Big Thank You to all who liked & commented on my poem here. I'm really happy that my thoughts on why we need poetry in our lives resonated with so many of you.

Comment is about Poements (blog)

Original item by Ruth O'Reilly

Thank you both for your thoughtful comments!

Comment is about Chit Chat (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

Thanks Do. It’s interesting what shows up when we write. I had a different poem in mind that was inspired by Leonard Cohen’s song, “My Secret Life,” but these words flowed through me and then the emotional “Rescue” song appeared. I hope it reaches whoever is meant to see it.

Comment is about My Secret Life (blog)

Original item by Vautaw

Governments crack and systems fall,
Austerity lands and hits us all.

Comment is about Sleeping rough in Westminster (blog)

Original item by hugh

Hey Trix, would that also happen to be the Hand of God holding the leaf? Is it possible to hire it?

The reason I ask is Po hired it for a short time and I would also be interested. I like it's ethereal glow.

https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=96665#page_comment_226921

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Comment is about Meditation on My Happy Place (blog)

Original item by trixtex

I don't usually go for poems with a regular repeating line, but this one works for me...although I have to say the notion/emotion rhyme is well worn. Hope you don't mind this honesty. I do like the piece overall Trixtex.

Comment is about Meditation on My Happy Place (blog)

Original item by trixtex

Ray, thank you and as always I have great respect for your views. Isn't the whole point that if WOL is a site for 'anyone' to join, it will attract anyone and everyone.

I tend to liken it to a party that you have been invited to, only to find a lot of people that you may not readily meet in your normal day-to-day existence.

As the evening wears on, one tends to gravitate towards those people with whom you share a common value or interest etc, leaving those who enjoy the dance floor and the birdy song to bop along to their hearts content.

On the way home, you might have taken a couple of email addresses to keep in touch maybe!

As to raising the bar, what would you have WOL do? Exclude those someone thought didn't reach the right quality level?

I have taken a decision to stop posting here on WOL for personal reasons, preferring to use my own page elsewhere for an outlet. I get even fewer responses there, but hey!

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

Meaningful......reasons to write or not to write....explicitly ones own choice....polite and to the point!!

Comment is about Good Question Poet Critic (blog)

Original item by Don Matthews

"I am not a junkie as people perceive,
A roof over my head I pray to receive."

Comment is about Sleeping rough in Westminster (blog)

Original item by hugh

Thanks Po for your consideration and the scary mask! Also to Tom and Brian for liking.

Comment is about ON HALLOWE'EN (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Hi Graham. Some bracing comments indeed. I would say and I have before and to pick up on Brian's point is that too abstruse a poem will not attract comments and therefore has a soul destroying effect on the aspiring writer. I know I would no longer have the support of 5 _ 10 comments and fear I may fall into the category of being sniffy if that implies a desire for raising the bar.. Oops.

While Randy's poem had a specific application I was making a defence for the ,occasional visitor who maybe sees little point in being in the wilderness.sadly I have to say that many comments are banal and show no real grasp of the potential that good poetry can open up , being often congratulatory and sycophantic. I'm sure that would be quite acceptable to the status quo who would not want the boat rocked .

Apologies to Randy for going off piste!

Ray

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

Again, thanks for all the comments. I do hope no one thought I was complaining specifically about the readers on WOL. I think WOL readers are above average in every way. When I first joined, I didn't post for the longest because I was too intimidated by the quality of the work I saw.

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

Don! read my comments carefully. I said soppy not sloppy

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

Wot's this I hear 'bout sloppy verse?
'ppearing on the site
My ditties they are top-class stuff
Full of light and might

So wot

Yes, my friend so wot I say
Throw me all your shit
I'll catch it in my hands I will
And throw you back at it

Thalia says shit Don you getting bit carried away......

Randy, you started all this. It's your fault.....

Don't be hard on Randy Don....

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Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

There are some incredibly good comments in this blog, worthy of a discussion thread all of its own.

Typically, a really well thought of poem here on WOL will attract between 5-10 comments/likes or both. not a lot of recognition really, although there is no counter to measure how many times a poem is looked at individually.

As Brian says, the site is here for everyone, at all ability levels and for myriad personal reasons. It is very easy for the more capable poets to become sniffy at the more light-hearted, uber-introspective or just plain soppy offerings that might find their way onto the site. So what!

As for editing old work, I for one do it rarely, and if so I do not re-publish. That's just me. Everyone to their own!

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

@emilia callahan glad you liked ?

Comment is about Song of Death (blog)

Original item by TROY

This interesting what Emelia is saying. I have heard the same comment from a long-standing experienced WOLer.

They look back on work when starting and are appalled by some of it. I seem to be the opposite. I read work when I started 2 years ago and think did I really write this? I guess if I had started when young and no life experience my early work would also be 'appalling'.

Then maybe not.......

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

The camera has caught lots of emotions in your photo....

Comment is about Poements (blog)

Original item by Ruth O'Reilly

I like this one. It feels futuristic but also like where our society seems to be heading.

Comment is about Song of Death (blog)

Original item by TROY

I also feel that you've hit on a truism in this piece. In regards to your students at the community college and the students at prestigious universities, I would honestly say that their poor quality of poetry probably relates more to being young and inexperienced, than anything else. I was a creative writing student in college as well, and when I look back at the things I wrote my first year versus my last year, I'm appalled at how awful of a writer I was in the beginning, and how much I improved. I agree wholeheartedly with your comment though, "being misunderstood is painful, but also universal" - and I think that is sometimes why we choose to write - we may be misunderstood at times, but we'd also like to share those things in our lives and our selves with others in hopes to create a more universal connection.

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

Short, simple, beautiful. Love it ?

Comment is about Poements (blog)

Original item by Ruth O'Reilly

I really like this one. This style is one of my favorites.

Comment is about What do you do? (blog)

Original item by Ged Thompson

like some people we know.

Comment is about Every Post Has A Gull (blog)

Original item by d.knape

It's easy to blame MPs for everything, but I don't think they can be blamed for high London property prices. That is due to London being a successful city which tends to suck in people, in particular immigrants.

Comment is about Sleeping rough in Westminster (blog)

Original item by hugh

Emotive for sure, but as a Westminster local and long term worker/resident, allow me to point out that the place doesn't choose to be a doss house for those in the "homeless" situation
(the term alone has numerous definitions). I worked in the 1960s docklands before it became the fashionable Canary Wharf we know now. Vagrancy/begging might have been a feature of life
there for many reasons but it wasn't so. Preferable to go "up
west" - again for numerous and somewhat obvious reasons...not
least more congenial surroundings, parks and large numbers of
passing-through people who are charitably inclined (here today/
gone tomorrow - back home).. In short, there are always two sides
to this particular coin - and assorted varieties and values of the coinage itself. Here in Westminster, we are in a no-win situation
- playing host to those with problems that far outreach our own
culpability/responsibility to cope. The Council must feel like King
Canute trying to hold back the waves! After all, the more
successful and sympathetic they appear to be, the more likely greater demands will be forthcoming as the word spreads down
the grapevine and the numbers multiply in the heart of London.

Comment is about Sleeping rough in Westminster (blog)

Original item by hugh

Mr. Mabuya, are you still with us? As passionate as ever?

Comment is about Mxolisi Mabuya (poet profile)

Original item by Mxolisi Mabuya

The more seeds dropped,
the more love grown,
the closer to becoming complete and whole.
This poem is fine as it stands,
crafted with thought and loving hands.
Passed along to quell the fear
of all who need love far and near.

Comment is about Heart Seeds (blog)

Original item by Eric Berard

Well it was worth throwing out there. A lovely naivety to this. ?

Comment is about Heart Seeds (blog)

Original item by Eric Berard

Don - out of 5.

I think Po is referring to a sort of catchphrase used by Janice Nicholls from Wednesbury who had a strong Black Country accent. She was a regular 'member of public' panellist on a 60's show called Thank Your Lucky Stars who had to give new record releases marks out of 5. She quite regularly said "It's gorra good beat and oi'll give foive'

Comment is about The Peoples Song (blog)

Original item by afishamongmany

5 out of what Po?

I liked the beat box backing Fish. Only thing missing was the bouncing ball to help me sing along with you.

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Comment is about The Peoples Song (blog)

Original item by afishamongmany

On this site we all write for an audience and we like to receive 'likes' and comments, preferably favorable. Otherwise why would we post? This site is a broad church with a constant stream of new contributors from many different countries, some of whom do not have English as a first language. The motivation for many is to get their back catalogue out there, to tell us about their particular issue, to post only and not engage with anyone etc. At the same time there are other established contributors who have been around for a while and are up to speed with the way other contributors write only to then leave the site or become a rare visitor. Regular contributors often write about their partner or muse or about the obvious or amusing and don't look for subtlety. So with all this going on, the audience for a piece which requires reading and re-reading to look for the subtle is quite small and relies on them dropping in on the day or two of the poem's life.

Having said all that Randy I will read your work closely in future.

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

A leaf falling off a tree never to live again .Few words,but full of effect and meaning.

Comment is about LIKE A TEAR (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

When I taught at a community college, many of us professors liked to lament the poor quality of students we had. We once had a visiting expert on higher education tell us that faculty at the most prestigious schools had the same complaints about their students. Being misunderstood is painful, but I'm guessing it is also universal.

I really appreciate the comments. Thanks as always.

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

Thank you, Po

Comment is about The Human Effect (blog)

Original item by Jon Stainsby

Thank you po, much appreciated you saying so.

All the best des

Comment is about incessant (blog)

Original item by DESMOND CHILDS

Last line knocks it out of the park

Comment is about Advice to the Elderly on Bonfire Night (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Thank you Kate and thank you poemagraphic, I am always grateful for your words.

Comment is about The Twilight Realm (blog)

Original item by John E Marks

Aaagh John. You never disappoint. Whimsical and lovely.

Comment is about The Twilight Realm (blog)

Original item by John E Marks

Brian, well observed. Po the human spirit as you say never quits. We are the victors of evil and not the vanquished.
Thanks guys
Keith

Comment is about A Solution (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

Perhaps I'm biased Randy but for my money you have hit on a truism particularly appropriate to this site where subtlety of expression counts for little. maybe I'm off beam but that's how I read it as I respect your input. I've given up with my material....

Ray

Comment is about Where Authors Whine About The Poor Quality Of Their Readers (blog)

Original item by Randy Horton

Short, raw & emotive. T ?

Comment is about LIKE A TEAR (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

They tangeled and got mangled! Hugh, thanks for the schaden freude ?
><>

Comment is about Tom Sykes (blog)

Original item by hugh

Hi Keith - Your response was so quick I think you must have read the song before I managed to post the audio up?
As for buying it, save your money, See behind and beyond the placards and think through the slogans.
Go well
><>

Comment is about The Peoples Song (blog)

Original item by afishamongmany

Wonderfully hopeful and idealistic but I’ll buy it.
Thanks
Keith

Comment is about The Peoples Song (blog)

Original item by afishamongmany

Well, I'm enjoying myself. I am content.

Comment is about From My Window There Is A Tree (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thanks Kate and yes! it's a precious thing to have discovered; both writing and reading.

Comment is about Why Poems? (blog)

Original item by Tom

Thanks Kate, Tom and Branwell for the likes and kate for the comment too.
Jennifer

Comment is about A deafening silence (blog)

Original item by Jennifer Malden

Nice one Ruth! ?

Comment is about Poements (blog)

Original item by Ruth O'Reilly