Poetry / Perch of Pain

Wow! This is the best review I’ve ever received. Thanks for your kind but honest words. First of all, I am by no means consider myself a good writer. However, I try not to be defensive either. I’m pretty much a high school drop out only I was home schooled. I do not have as much knowledge about English and grammar as I’d like. I am in college now, but still have not taken any English courses. I’ve written about fifty things since I was 16 years old. I wrote this 1 year ago. I am a recovering addict so it has almost everything to do with this poem. To an extent, this is, or was, my “twisty, turny” point of view. My life has changed so fast and confusingly so. My see things, especially about myself, that seem to be so extreme that there is definitely contradicting feelings and perceptions that come and go. Basically, when I put that on paper it becomes clear where I’m at in life. I don’t really know the rules and/or guidelines of writing or poetry so I try to present it as raw as I can all while putting it in the words that display my individuality. Poetry kind of forces me to focus on the best description of who I am and what I’m going through at that. I wish my vocabulary was better. And it does get better as time goes on. Pretty busy though. Anyway, to sum it up in a few words, I guess I would say this is about how the fantasy I lived in for so long clashed with the reality in which I am now trying to live a new way of life. If you have more questions feel free to ask. Thank you so much for your feedback.

you’re very welcome. i was an addict myself, and use writing as a therapeutic tool as well. the only reason i can identify technical quibbles and look at a piece is because i did english lit in high school (god and they said high school never teaches you anything! (well apart from how to smoke on the oval and not get caught)) and i’m also taking a creative writing unit for my degree.

i recommend you take some sort of class, where they teach you sabout english and review your work, real people doing face-to-face reviews. you’d love it, i reckon, and it would be very useful technically to you.

as for expanding your vocabulary, read, read and read some more. try fantasy, try books by older authors like agatha christie’s work (she has a killer vocab), the old bond books, and it’ll come to you through contextual reading. i use a lot of words where i could barely define them, but i understand from having read so mauch what they mean. get yourself a good old world comprehensive dictionary. if you want to go hard, learn latin. it’s awesome and it helps!

last but not least, don’t be afraid of the thesaurus. roget is my best friend in this world.

good luck staying off the shit.

tess xx

Thanks a lot. I’ve planning to do some of those things, except Latin, but I’m open to that as well as getting a good old world comprehensive dictionary. Namaste!