The Slam: Slammables

Chafed

by Erica, Missouri

Look, I was just trying to do you a favor.
It's cool.
Really.
Cool.
My tea is cooled down, tastes
the same to you, I bet.
There's a pile of change over
where patches of light just miss it.
I suppose there's pine trees too
(the silt in the cup swirls when I drink).
I'm a poet, right?
Well, write it for me.

Slammings

I love the ambiguity in this poem.  It's cool that you can communicate a feeling without feeling the need to communicate exact circumstances -- like you know exactly how much information you need to give to make it intriguing, yet not entirely nonsensical. I love the last two lines, even though I don't really understand what they are about; there's just something I love about the simplicity and the almost apathetic, tired feeling it gives. I also really like the graceful rhythm of your poem, the way it feels like thoughts, rather than something carefully constructed. Nice job!

critiqued by etoile, Salt Lake City, UT
Jan 29, 2010

This is so crackling and defensive! I love how you have all these cold words (pine, change, silt) tied together with such a heated tone. It gives you sort of a disjointed, right-before-a-storm feeling. The only problem that I have is in the last two lines. The entire poem is so beatiful and then you have this strident voice demanding something seemingly unrelated to the whole rest of the piece. Maybe I'm being dreadfully obtuse and you're rolling your eyes and I've missed the whole point, but if those two lines could be changed a little bit, it would just make the loveliness of your poem just that little bit clearer. Please write some more!

critiqued by L. M. Zhukov, Russia
Feb 24, 2010