The Slam: Slammables

the chill on me

by cygnet, western earth

the chill on me a clean tingling
the thorns at my temples a touch of transience

the chill on the metal the grooves
of the palm, of the craft the pressing shaft the impact of love

like smoke at my temples the pull
of gravity

of graveness

of the grave

the emptied vessel the chill on me

Slammings

This is good -- it's not like "prose poetry," where it's just sentences split into paragraphs. I like "of graveness" and "of the grave" -- I think you should change "of gravity" to match with graveness/grave too. The fourth line slightly befuddles me. Is this the lack of punctuation? Same with the last line. "The Chill On Me" is a very sensual poem; I'm not clear, though, on what this poem is about. Good use of the senses!

critiqued by springzhu, Ottawa, Ontario
May 22, 2010

The seeming lack of punctuation is actually due to formatting mistakes...

It's supposed to be:

the chill on me
a clean tingling
the crown of thorns
a touch of transience...

 

I guess the mess-up changed the flow a little bit. I meant it to kind of symbolize suicide, but it’s itching at something bigger that I can't quite wrap my head around nor write about particularly well.

 

Thanks for your comments!

critiqued by wishfish, this plane of existence
May 26, 2010

I liked how you took advantage of the connection between gravity, graveness, and the grave, but the rest of the poem felt scattered. This poem did not leave me with a strong feeling about coldness or about love. Actually, I don't even know what this poem is about. I understand that with poetry you have more freedom with structure, and you can choose not to say lots of things and leave the reader with only an impression, but this does not have enough for even that. Take this poem and fill it out more.

critiqued by Lieutenant_Leo
May 22, 2010

I like the way the rhythm sort of slows down toward the end and ties back up to the beginning. Did you write this for any particular reason or did it just happen to come to you? A lot of the time I don't know what I am going to write before I write it, and it often works out better that way, instead of planning and rewriting a thousand times. This has a natural flow to it. 

critiqued by eponine-pontmercy
May 22, 2010