If someone has freedom of speech to post a poem and ask for comments on it, is it double standards to seek to deprive someone else of expressing their opinion on it – either by blocking or reporting them. A public forum is either one thing or the other – it can’t be both. An excitable foreign youth, with delusions of adequacy, is currently trying to incite a riot – must be his diet. Hey, that almost rhymes. Comments and observations please.
Aragorn, I do not follow anyone’s poems around – I simply sometimes respond to various people whose names I recognize. As most, if not all of you, have contacts to whom you always respond, for you or anyone to accuse another person of following anyone around is ridiculous. On another response, you accused me of reporting all of Arwen’s poems. As you had no way of knowing who was responsible, such an accusation was thoroughly irresponsible. In effect, by stating as a fact something which was untrue, you lied. On that same response, you also called me a b*st*rd – now you are denying it. You are nothing but a liar through and through – and certainly no gentleman. As far as I’m concerned, her poetry is mince and I reserve the right to say so. If she can’t handle one negative comment amongst all the positive (’though deluded) ones she gets, then her ego needs reining in. Also, you are again lying – Arwen has commented several times on many things I have had to say.
Do you just make your statements up as you go along? On one of her responses to someone else’s questions, she said that poets have no need to wear masks because they simply write what is true – this from someone who wears the mask of "Princess Arwen" and conceals her true identity. You last comment is truly sickening – you speak of her as if she is some religious figure – instead of the pompous, deluded, mediocre writer that she is.
Cassie – I only count three women I call liars – which they are. Incidentally, I did not "infer" – the correct word you were looking for was "implied" – and I did not do that either. I came right out and called them liars – because they are. Incidentally, I would call a black man a black b*st*rd – if he was black and if he was a b*st*rd – to tell the truth is not to be a racist. I would also call a skinny b*st*rd a skinny b*st*rd, in the same way that I would call a fat one, a bald one, a hairy one, a greasy one, etc., exactly what they happen to be.
If a b*st*rd happens to be fat and I call him a fat b*st*rd, it does not mean I hate all fat people – same goes for if he’s skinny, lanky, speccy, greasy, ugly, hairy – or black. (Or white, yellow, red or any colour you care to mention.) I’m not into political correctness – it’s the same nonsense that says we shouldn’t send "Christmas" cards in case we offend Moslems – we should only send cards which bear the message "Season’s Greetings". We should call blackboards "chalkboards" in case we offend negroes, etc. All a complete pile of p*sh in my book.
Look at what’s getting everyone riled up here. Someone posts a poem, gets maybe a dozen responses saying things like "OMG – Amazing – You are a true poet – You are so talented", etc., etc. – then I pop up and say "It’s pants", and suddenly it’s the end of the world for that person and they’re never going to write again? Absolute b*ll*cks!
Anyone who would take offense at any of my comments (I’m not talking about the Iano impostors who are trying to stir up anti-Iano sentiment by putting words in my mouth) is not writing poems out of a love of poetry, but because they’re looking for meaningless flattery to feed their over-inflated egos and give them a sense of self-validation that they ill-deserve. The fact remains that most of the people who post poetry on Yahoo should not be encouraged – because they are absolute cr*p at it. Have you seen America’s Got Talent? Filled with people who labour under the delusion that they’re going to be "the next best thing" and then humilate themselves in front of millions of people. Why? Because their friends and loved ones didn’t have the b*lls to say "Give it up, Junior – you can’t sing/dance, juggle. etc., worth a d*mn. Either that, or they were similarly deluded about Junior’s abilities.
(Oops! Insert quotes after "d*mn" in the line above – I didn’t hit the key hard enough.)
Here’s the simple truth (again). People are posting poems on a PUBLIC FORUM and asking for opinions – I simply give them mine. The ones who get uppity about it are the ones on this page who email me with personal abuse, or call me names like "@sshole" or "b*st*rd", or publicly wish a horrible death upon me and try and start campaigns against me. Seriously, do you really believe those are the actions of rational, well-balanced, decent people? Just because I said I didn’t like their poem. Often one lone, negative response amongst others praising them to the rafters, but they focus on the one dissenting voice as an object of hate and villification. As far as I’m concerned, those people shouldn’t be allowed out by themselves.
People have to wade through mainly cr*p on Yahoo – if a humorous comment by me brings a smile to the lips of some weary traveller wading through a sea of sh*t, know what?
IT’S A JOB WELL DONE.
Freedom of speech comes with responsibility. I personally have never blocked or reported anyone. Everyone should be entitled to have their say. However, I do believe that when giving your point of view or critique, you should do so in a polite way. I don’t believe you should make people feel bad. Even if a poem is absolute crap, point them in the direction of how they can improve it, or just do not leave a comment at all. There is no need to crush peoples hopes. The person you mention above could end up by doing more harm than good even though his intentions are for a clean up job of the poetry site. My view for what it’s worth. Much more tolerance required here. May I add I don’t see the women poets causing trouble.
Edit: ( following the points you raised regarding my earlier answer).
I do not know what went on between Arwen and you. I have no knowledge whatsoever as I do not read everything on this site. All I know is that she said she left because of you and that came in the first instance, from a mutual colleague of ours.
The other point that I want to make is that on this page alone you have inferred that four women are liars.
I was educated and brought up in a background which offered encouragement and nurture to get the best out of people. I do not understand any other way. You have opposing views to mine. I also believe in telling the truth. You can tell someone their poetry isn’t any good without decimating them altogether and preventing them from even trying to improve. Also, poetry is subjective. I may feel something is actually quite pleasant and promising, when you feel it is crap. You do not appear to enjoy any free verse at all, preferring only rhyme and meter.
I am a mature woman in my 50’s with family. I know only too well how youngsters can react to put downs, it would be wrong to do this. (Note I have not accused you of it because I have not seen it with my own eyes). I was anxious when I first posted on this site and I don’t consider myself fragile. I was anxious about coming across the sort of put downs that you can give. If that had happened to me, I may not have bothered to have continued writing. I would not have known that I showed any promise (even you have acknowledged that)
Consideration of peoples feelings, cost nothing. I would by far prefer to be remembered as a person who encouraged someone to enjoy poetry than put them off it altogether.
As someone else mentioned further up, freedom of speech does not mean the freedom to abuse and create negativity. With it comes responsibility. That’s why you can’t call a black man a black b——–because it is a racist hateful remark and you would get pulled up for it. So when it boils down to it perhaps there is no such thing as complete freedom of speech because there are laws in place against racism, inciting racial hated etc.
We have very different views, but on this page thankfully are to express them.