First of all, I would just like to say thank you. Thank you for adding some beauty to my life. Thank you for a specific name to look for when a new batch of posts come up on The Slam. I smile when I see your name.

I read this the first day it was on the site, but I didn't comment because I wanted to read other comments first, to roll them around in my mind a bit. I felt like this was above my level of expertise. But no one else commented, so I guess I'll take a stab at it and be the brave first.

I like how the lines are short, but not stilted. Short lines are good to break up a long poem; when I see thirty lines that fill up the page all the way to the end I must admit I do feel a bit like giving up before I start sometimes. Words can be like a swarm of bees hovering over flowers. You don't care enough to smell the roses at the risk of being stung. Yet you aren't breaking up thoughts to have short lines, which makes a poem really hard to read. You just have short thoughts. Which is good, because lots of little thoughts can fit in my brain and only a few big ones, and the rest go unappreciated.

Something I found interesting was the internal rhyme, assonance, and words that just flow together because of how similar they sound. I really like little rhythmic things inside lines that sort of dance on your tongue when you read. Like Who knew of what and who and Class against class, Boys who are tall with emptiness. “Dance floors” and “bars” work well near each other. And for some reason "eyes" sort of stuck with "always" to me when I read it, although looking back I'm not sure why. They don't sound much alike. I'm not sure if you did this intentionally, or if it was a more subconscious thing, but I can tell you get rhythm and flow. Some people write poems. You write poems. They sound like you read them aloud.

Mostly I want you to know why I love how you write. It's really the little things that count, so always remember that. I can feel your passion for your subject matter through your style, and even though I know very little about Russia at all, I find myself in a sort of dreaming stupor about the place, as if I'd been there. But since I've never set foot outside of the US, it's more like a shadow -- I can feel Russia, though I cannot see it.

Whatever it is, I love it.

Happy writing, with love.

I have one thing -- okay, maybe two things -- to say... First, GOOD. Really good. Imagery, heart-twisting sparseness... And second, SPACIBO.

This may seem harsh, and I do enjoy the style of your writing, but you really need to branch out some.  The first poem of yours I read I loved, but after that they just all ran together and I can't even tell them apart.  Try writing something different.  It could be a different type of poetry, or even some microfiction (I know, I did read "Rings," but it felt like poetry).  Maybe try writing from a different gender's point of veiw or a bad person, or how about something less dramatic.  Try writing from an animal's eyes, or a third party observer? Just some suggestions.

First off, thank you Jenna for your extremely flattering and beautiful comment. I am so very very glad that I have been able to convey to you the beauty that is my poor confused country through my (I'm sure) unworthy compositions.

To Aaron Lawrence, it's a dreadful cliche, but thank you for your criticisms. I do realize that all of my work that has appeared here is in a very similer vein. There is a simple explanation for it: my writing in this particular manner is Slam worthy, my other writing is not, and, hence, does not not appear here. I am continually working with different styles and I hope that you will see some of these newer compositions in the near future.

And, to garamondgirl, pazhalsta!