Writers of the Revolution, December 28th

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Featured WRITER


Featured by flummo
Just as with the first time I did WoR, I was glad to find someone that I couldn't believe we hadn't featured before. MattVoscinar has a voice that is quietly brilliant. I'm in awe of those who can capture vivid images with simple language, whose words are so, so personal yet somehow also universal, and he achieves that with every single poem. In the wake of each one I always find myself wondering, how'd he do that?

You should definitely, definitely go and try to find out for yourself.

:thumb404411828:
Dogs and the Full Moon
"They say the full moon drives dogs mad.
I don't believe them. We're all dogs
and we're always mad
"

A mean picture of desperation, this is something that all of us, as human beings, should take a good hard look at.

MasaryktownAfter the seventh time trying to pronounce it,
people always ask me, “What’s in Masaryktown?”
I tell them: Old people and meth labs
I can spot them pretty easily,
the old people –
and the meth labs.
A few years ago my friend Peter’s house shook
from an explosion. Good neighbors.
It’s a place with two gas stations and
one Cuban restaurant, where everyone knows each other,
even the hooker, like one big family that doesn’t
like each other very much.
Our coat of arms?
Busch beer cans.
Favorite mode of transportation?
Lawn mower.
Our smiles?
Missing teeth.
Masaryktown is one big DUI waiting to happen.
But behind all that, there’s something…
like a memory. A memory untouched,
like dirt roads you can watch age underneath your feet,
like the crumbling bridge my cousin jumped off of and broke his ankle,
like the graveyard filled with tombstones, covered with names
no one can pronounce. Where the stars, look like stars.
Light pollution never

Masaryktown
"where everyone knows each other,
even the hooker, like one big family that doesn't
like each other very much
"

We all have bittersweetness attached to our roots, and that's captured perfectly here. :heart:

BurningWe burned the book on the gray steps
of your back porch. When your father
came home, I hid –
he found me sweeping up the ashes.
Sunday morning came to pass
and the cross above your bed
hung crooked. I wondered
if you’d ever fix it.
You took it down instead.

Burning
"Sunday morning came to pass
and the cross above your bed
hung crooked.
"

We can all relate to poems about faith or the loss of it, be it religious or otherwise.

:thumb374694941:
Growing Pains Management
"I haven't put on
that many miles but when you floor it
for twenty two years straight
there's going to be some damage.
"

Much like Masaryktown, this is beautiful in how bittersweet it is. Here, MattVoscinar depicts how we can't help but be tugged along in the current of life and the march of time with wisdom and quiet contemplation.

We :heart: MattVoscinar



Featured CRITIQUES

LitCritic

on love notes from a sociopath at 6 a.m. by bubblemoth
"I can see the style difference. It seems like you've grown as a writer when you hit the third paragraph. However, I think it works nicely for the piece, because it is almost as if the narrator is slipping deeper into a different mind. Receiving two different styles/points of views from you helped add to the deterioration the narrator is experiencing, I think."
[Read more here]


xlntwtch

on (Tell Me a Story) A counted Blessing by H0lyShitttt
"I'm a prose writer and you should keep that in mind, though I've written lots of lit crit on poetry, too. I would capitalize the "c" in the title, even though it's part of the word play you mention (I'd say so), because it's equally important as the other words there. This work is carefully done and so it's effective in the way you want it be. It works as a sonnet and as a sort-of prayer, a lovely thing to do with a sonnet."
[Read more here]




Featured RESOURCES


This was sent my way after a fierce battle with a lengthy free-verse poem. If you have problems with those as well you'll love this.
The Breaking Point: End-stopping and EnjambmentIntroduction
The most noticeable difference between poetry and prose is often the use of line breaks in poetry. When the line break comes at the end of a phrase, sentence, or clause, the line is end-stopped. End-stopped lines often end with punctuation like periods/full stops, commas, semi-colons, and colons. When the line break disrupts the phrase, sentence, or clause, the line is enjambed. The French word enjambement, from which 'enjambment' is derived, means 'straddling,' and appropriately, the phrases straddle two or more lines.
End-Stopping
The first four lines of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" are an example of end-stopped lines:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Walt Whitman also uses end-stopped lines in "Song of Myself (I)":
I Celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
F



Keep active, poets! Writing is SRS BSNS
The Poetic Mind as a MuscleThe Poetic Mind as a Muscle
As a poet at any given skill level, you might ponder different ways to advance your mastery of the craft. You might spend weeks dissecting famous and not so famous poets. You might read countless articles on poetic technique. You might just plow through any and every collection you can get your hands on, track all of the most well-know journals, follow all of the contemporaries. All of these things add up to a knowledgeable poet. However, does this necessarily make you a better poet?
No. The reason is that most of us equivocate poetic skill with divinely gifted talent. We often think of poetry as a latent ability that we merely possess or do not. This leads to certain diseases within the mind, whether it be the idea that our words are beyond reproach because they are "self expression," or we decide that words come out and that's all there is to it. Other times we are stricken by the undeniable flaws of our work, even t


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goober-chunk's avatar
you deserved it!