There must be somebody out there who knows some Welsh. If you only want to contact people, write in Chinese. Now that would be interesting. It was an intellectual challenge. I apologise for nothing. Traditional Welsh poetry works by counting syllables, whereas in English it works by stresses. I think the middle line is particularly nice.

I could tell you how the Welsh Englyn has many similarities to a haiku, but it would take too long. Actually, I'll do it anyway. A source on the internet says of the englyn: 'This is a form of thirty syllables arranged in lines of ten, six, seven and seven syllables. There is one end-rhyme, but in the first line one, two or three syllables layer the rhyming word, and are echoed in the first words of the second line. Cynghanedd (literally "harmony", where there is an internal alliteration - certain consonants are made to recur regularly within a line) is necessary.' Basically, I'd just come home from learning Welsh for two hours (I'm a long way from fluent in the language), and just did it for fun. By the way, a double L in Welsh is a sort of guttural 'cl' sound, as in Llanelli. Oh, and one of the roles of are is to provoke and confuse the audience, which I think I managed.....

Why thanks very much - you are a gentleman sir. I've given up on birds, or at least cut back, thanks to you. Maybe it's done me some good.

Why do you feel sorry for her? And no, you should not have brought your prof into this. Just because some published academic goof who teaches of all things a "creative writing class", which is in essence group therapy, says you poetry is good does not mean the general public will accept it. That is life. Most people read John Grisham, not Paul Auster. I am glad your prof deems you to have potential. It is a good feeling and maybe you are deserving, but frankly you have a long way to go. The slams you receive are simply responses to your, well, slams.

Yes, but you also denied one of those aspects as being a valid subject for poetry. Did you prof tell you that?

You haven't deceived anyone. All I was saying is I feel sorry for you.

I'm not trying to say that, I am saying that, precisely. I value his opinion because he's a poet, and a very good one. I don't value yours, because you seem like a generic fool. But I am enthusiastic about my own work, at least some of the time, and it was silly of me to even have brought him into this. I just don't understand where most of you are coming from...by what standards you are judging these poems. This is probably my favorite, or at least the most successful, of the poems I've submitted, and it has the lowest score. This is like some online poetry slam. And by the way, you don't think loss, pain, and misunderstanding are aspects of human experience? They're the essence of human experience.

that's a phrase. a label. and true. publish the furnace-builder. it'll make me smile in the morning.

comment deleter (new word).

I still don't get it. Are you the other person? Is it your pie? Should we change the word pie to turd? How many kids? three? Day job? Still have sex?

1. my city established 1876. Centennial State. Columbine, flower (and historic shooting event that inspired a 5K and a new license plate). Bird, Chrsitof. I live in the heart of it. I am less than 1 mile from a store that sells at least 15 brands of condoms. 2. Which pic. Major windburn in the bike race. Did I mention how much pain I was in. You would not believe. (It is not last call or anywhere near it here). 3. i don't understand. 4. I hate everyone here, except you, of course