i just wanted to say that i enjoyed your book, especially "SELF REFLECTION" and "MEMORY". thank you for ever brought back memories.

I really enjoyed this anthology. Each poem is written so well. There's an emotional intensity and I love the images you use. My favorite one is "A Snapshot." It makes me want to venture into poetry, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be that great. Yet, you've inspired me to try. Thanks and good luck!

Hi Jamie - each Poem is a Gem. This is a lovely anthology for a budding poet. Each poem was different and had form and was easy to read and recite which is the hallmark of a good poem. I wish you every success in the competition and in your future as a "publishable poet". Excellent - JOHN

Your poems are really good! thanks!

You are definitely a poet Jamie, and I'm sure there are more great things to come. I loved Little Murder Ditty!

drastic change. Stepping out the way and letting that voice inside express to you. you you you. Something you needed to hear. Writing is for the writer primarily. And at first it doesn't make sense. The sense of it will come later, in many years to come. You will look back at the voices. Fall on your knees and cry. Or maybe they are just toxins you need to expel so get to the gems. Only the writer can answer and comment in years to come. Press on my friend!!! (I thought it was abrupt and out of nowhere, I was full of confusion, but there, confusion was expressed and the tension of that was felt.) In life there are far more drags than climbs, so that process of writing as to comes brings the art closer to life.

Your poems are really good, I liked the poems "They're telling me", "Little Murder Ditty", "Fall" specially.Good work done. Your cover picture is awesome.Keep it up.
I have voted very enthusiastically.Great job.

he said as he looked on the table. 3 quarters of hate and a third of the rest, slowly anticipating a decrease. He left in a hurry, after letting us know it was not something we should be concerned about, probably thinking that it was a) none of our business and b) not of our natures to grasp the truth of it anyway. We all knew what he meant of course, but also that he was wrong. Times cannot be left to their own devices too much. And so it was in that mood, the stirring dimness of that room, that we saw eachother for the first time, Gods.

This is what came out when I took your advice! I was going to write a normal response, but those words of yours, as I pasted them into the subject line, crackled a few sparks in my head. It's amazing to touch that synapse with a conscious finger: like a live wire, the place where the dreams spring. Beautiful! Definitely a good exercise in freeing the mind. Thanks :)
Have you written poetry you can post?

I said just write because you are obviously a poet. There is a rushing flow about your verses. "a memory", Siam Husk" for example. Even Who? which breaks away from a format of the others I love btw. Winds from ancient worlds and modern days. They don't seem at all forced. I run into the problem too...of conforming to structure when the nature of what I am saying is chaotic. Not a copout, It's a matter of preference and I write in both ways. But sometimes the message (or trauma) is comprised to give way to structure. And we are left with something that we can digest...the reader can understand. It sounds good, because it rhymes. But what really needs to come out in our poems is what can't be articulated. A secret language from the subconscious trying to heal itself. The thing is the subconscious is a master rapper, it speaks in rhymes, but its voice is not rhymey. I hope that makes some sort of sense.

Thanks for that comment. I value criticism. And yes, I have since noticed that I'm tending towards forcing line breaks a little too often. It's so tempting though, I guess it's a way to force a rhythm that might otherwise fade. A supplement, you might say. A copout?
Not always I suppose. But definitely sometimes.

I shall post some more recent stuff and let you know when I do: I would be interested to hear your opinion again.
But I warn you, I pleasure so much from embedded rhyme and gratifying rhythm, I don't know if I could stop the snowball. Sometimes I start writing prose, and it just turns into what I might have to call rap!
:)