I have to say, this is odd. But that's not bad.

I was about halfway through it when I realized why many of the lines were so familiar: they're titles of old Slam submissions.

Then I was confused. I wondered why you had written this in such a way. I wondered if that was even poetry at all, if you were just taking other people's words.

Then, I think I got it. I don't know if this is what you saw in it, or why you wrote it, but this is what I saw. As I read, I remembered some of the stories and poems, the ones I had read over and over, the ones that I tacked up to my wall, but which have long since been covered up by a million other things that crowd my mind. To me, this poem is my holding on to a beautiful piece of writing that I never want to let go of. Eventually, I always let go, because you can't hold on to every beautiful thing you've ever read. It's like underlining words in books; I treasure them, but never have the time to go back over them and read them. This poem is beautiful in that way.

One thing I would definitely change, though, is to add some of your words, connecting the titles. I think you have a story peeping through the lines, but not enough of it is there for me to see it. I can see my story through the titles, but can I see yours? What made you want to do this, what emotions do you get from these titles? I'd rather see fewer titles and more of your phrasing binding them together.

All in all, interesting and unexpected. Happy Writing!

I really like your poem. It was something I needed. Something I couldn't say. Thank you.

This is wonderful! I wasn't sure for a second where you were going, but then I started to recognize the titles of previous Slammables -- what an original idea! This whole poem made me smile, and I was delighted to see a couple of my own works mixed in with others I enjoyed so much. Well done.

This is a tremendous undertaking. You have used the words of others to paint your own, supremely unique picture. It takes great talent to do such a thing. Every poem you include takes on a new meaning. The meanings of the original poems are added to your piece, and the original poems likewise become richer courtesy of this piece. Thank you.

You poem is really unique and personal.  I don't know exactly what you mean in some places... which I really like!  It makes it sound like you have an inside joke or secret behind your words! I enjoyed reading it!

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thank you to everyone who said that they liked my poem, and to everyone who said that it was weird, too, because I love feedback. And weird was part of what I was going for, anyway!

I actually did use some words of my own in the poem, because I found out early on that the story wouldn't make any sense if I didn't use any connecting words. I added in phrases here and there, and I tweaked the tenses of some titles and did other things like that, until it made sense to me as a story. I can see how the poem might benefit from some more lines connecting it and holding it together, however; if I hadn't written it, I probably would have no idea what it was about.

Anyway, some people were wondering what I was trying to accomplish with the poem and why I wrote it. My answer to that is kind of complicated. It was inspired in part by the book The Name of the Rose, because in that book the characters talk about how a library is kind of like a living organism, because each book is inspired by other books, and so they are all connected and they all communicate and form something greater.

I was also inspired by a philosopher I learned about in class. (I can't remember his name! I want to say David Hume but I think that might be wrong, and Google is failing me!) He believed that it was impossible for a human to imagine anything that didn't already exist. So, when people try to imagine things, the only thing that they can do is to combine the things that they see in the world to make something new. For example, an angel is a man plus wings. I am very into the That One Philosopher style of writing. I like to rearrange words, or titles of songs or books or whatever, until I get something new.

The final thing that inspired the poem was... I was bored, and was looking through the Slammables and I thought, "Wow, there are some really cool titles here."

I'd love if you guys could tell me which areas of the poem are difficult to understand and where I should add more lines. Thanks for your feedback!