Much like cleaning up at home, I have had a terrible time sorting and tossing stuff. At Read Write Poem the stuff is not trash or debris, but your words. It is hard, hard, hard to push the delete button. But it had to be done as a part of the project to revitalize the critique groups!
So here’s the announcement: Old critiques and critique feedback have been deleted.
Now we can start fresh by posting comments to poems, and the poems themselves, in the appropriate place and respond to poems in a constructive manner (not that you weren’t before, but there was occasional confusion).
Remember to read our critique information (all topics, please) found in the navigation bar. It might be that you need to move to a different group. That is A-OK. Just request to join and we’ll get you in. (For a refresher on why we have done this, read this post.)
Do remember that critique is reciprocal, and we ask that you give more than you take, that you give before you post your own poem for critique.
One of the ways to help build critique is to work out a buddy system of sorts. Participate in the dialogue over other people’s work and when you click with someone or get something out of the conversation, ask that person to be a critique buddy. You’ll critique their work and they’ll critique yours. Work out with one another how to notify each other when you’ve posted. If you have three or four of these buddies, it’ll surely be enough to dialog about your work to get a sense of what direction you’d like to take revision.
If you have any questions or comments, please let us know. You can send me (or any other director) an email using the address info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org. Please include the word “critique” in the subject line. You can also message us through the site.
