A poem I wrote about my cat

Consider what you may, my work is my work. I was flattered at first until there were talk of "changes" to it which shattered my flattery. Regardless if the changes would grammatically "improve" it, it's still not right to take another person's writing and change it to your pleasing, especially if they ask you not to.

As for my hissy fit, I don't clearly remember it (I'll have to look it up) because I posted it really drunk, so I don't really have much to say about it. I'll probably just not bother and move on.

I would like to point out the humor in the fact that all this controversy was brought on by poem about a cat. xD

I'll agree with those who suggest different words, that they get to do that (no choice by me, I wasn't attending.) This isn't a puritan site. You don't have to accept the word change suggestions. Lighten up. Your cat has already forgotten.

Did you just want us to bow?

Well I'm not going to argue about this anymore. I just don't agree with changing another person's work. If you feel like a poem could of been written better, than write a better one yourself. Simple as that.

But what ever, I'm over it and moving on because all of this is going no where.

in a hurry...

I would change cat to dog, resonating the zoetic noetic poetic trilogy.

Not really. Your transparent egocentricity has a lot to do with it. Lets face it, poems and stories about cats (often imperious ones) are pretty common. Do you not recall T.S. Elliot's celebrated anthropomorphic efforts ?

I don't get how T.S. Elliot's poetry has to do with how a big deal I made about the issue of my poem being tampered with. All I am stating is the fact of how I made such a big deal about a poem about my cat. I really care about my cat A LOT, and that is where my ego came into play and blew it all out of proportion. But I definitely wasn't alone in all this, as the saying goes "It takes two to tango" ( in this case, more than two). Ego's are such a silly thing, and mine's has been something I have been battling with for as long as I can remember. The ego get's the better of all of us at certain times in our lives, and mine's got the better of me in this instance. Which brings me back to the humor in this, we all freaked out over a cat. xD

A reasonable response, to which I merely add a couple of comments for your consideration.

1. The reference to the plethora of "cat stuff" could be taken as a factor in a "creativity score". Indeed one might even be tempted to examine the nature of that continuous dimension which runs from "suggestion" through to "plagiarism".

2. With respect to "your battle with your ego", try counting what percentage of your poems contain the pronoun "I".

You're honestly wasting your intelligence in all of this. I ask you to move on from all of this. I have only read "The Wasteland, and other poems and essays." by T.S. Elliot from my local library on K.K. Avenue and I have returned that book 3 months ago. Also, the only poem that have involved an animal in that book that I can remember is a hippopotamus. I mean... on my face book page, you can see A LOT OF pictures of this cat that I have written a poem about. I love this cat, and the poet Fredrick Kesner's (which you should read, he is really good) poem called ".a feather called macaroni" inspired me to write this poem because I decided to write less serious poem. And this poem was the result. That poem in which Fredrick has written has nothing to do with animals in ANY way. So your accusations of "plagiarism" is completely invalid.

And for the number "2" in your response, you don't think I've noticed the number of "I"'s in my poetry??? Sometimes I think "Maybe I shouldn'
t show anyone this because of how many times I say 'I' but really, should I not post something because of my battle? My battle probably will define me and ALSO might bring hope to other who are battling with their egos.

HONESTLY you are now going WAY out of your way to belittle me and make me feel possibly "Pathetic" and my response to all this is "**** you, get a life."

Who has a ego now?

I draw your attention to the fact that this forum is ostensibly designed for those exchanging"expert advice". You are certainly entitled to question my "expertise", but not the spirit in which it is offered. If you merely want to display your prolific output for the purposes of kudos, you are in the wrong place. There are plenty of specific poetry websites on which you can present your work.

As well as much better poets at this site . . . JJorge comes to mind.

They all work the same way. OP posts something and everyone else criticizes it. Because there is less actual talent around than ability to criticize (which requires little more than one's opinion and a means in which to deliver it).

Whether one approves the word or not is nearly entirely contingent on the saltiness of one's personal vocabulary. After all, the person who criticized me for using the word was himself doing a more specific version of what he was criticizing that I did (deploring someone's social graces) and if you are going to tell someone that they are untoward and a generally dislikable sort, choosing to couch one's insults in Brahmin terms versus a more colloquial vernacular grants only an illusory moral superiority, in my opinion.

Nevertheless, I did not even actually call him a jackass. I just happen to use jackass as a word a lot (my task for getting our company site online was "get our madlab site up so we no longer look like jackasses", so merely not having a functional site is "jackasss-worthy" to me), it just happens to be a word with greater employment in my vocabulary than most and while I do think that ripping off people work can generally be considered jackassery I am not signing up to any specific claim of the validity of the description for farmerman here. I don't know farmerman except from able2know and while he certainly can play the part whenever he wants to I don't personally consider him to be a jackass (not that I think there's anything wrong with that either, there's no reason everyone has to like everyone).

Much ado about jackass.

Agreed. In this case Had I not had experience of weighing almost every word when writing a poem I would have had little to say.

For example in, one of my 2003 poems "Climate Change" ....
http://able2know.org/topic/3636-1
...I wrote the line...."Yet ice snaps bring not gun shots dread"...and I remember spending a long time wondering whether to interrupt the onomatopeic "volley of shots" by changing "not" to "no".

Obviously, I don't expect everybody whose writes poetry to weigh word choice in this manner, but I do expect a little more than a straight "churning out" of ideas with little thought to structure of the exposition.

Wait, wait . . . i can clear all of this up for everyone. This guy sucks at poetry.

I should probably point out that I'm not commenting on the quality of the talent or the criticism in this topic, as I have not even read either. I am just saying that nearly all writing forums I know of are generally a bunch of poetry posted to bad reviews due to the general economics of the supply and demand. Basically just that the places on the internet where one can get mostly rave reviews of one's writing are few and far between, no comment on the quality of the writing or the reviews in this thread was intended as I can't speak meaningfully to either here.

Point taken. No doubt the question "what constitutes poetry " could be as nebulous as "what constitutes art ", the main criteria perhaps being a combination of technique, originality and emotional impact.

I was not attempting to couch insults in Brahmin terms or any other terms.


I was reacting to something which I saw as being uncalled for. Now, days later you come along and offer up an excuse for why you used the particular term.

Neither was I attempting to convey moral superiority. That (superiority, either moral or any other sort) long ago was scratched off the list of my own qualities. I was merely, as stated prior, indicating that the approach from you, as the person at the top spot on the site, can cause some to feel uncomfortable and in some cases to exit the site. I get it. You don't care. Fine. Keep in mind though, when good posters exit, the site suffers. Eventually the site crumbles.