Say "Hi" in this Thread

[rayheinrich]

I hope this is the right place to introduce myself. 

My name is Jeremiah and I love writing. I have always been a prose writer, and really had no interest in poetry. However, I started studying it to help grow my prose writing, and I have learned, that not only do I enjoy poetry, but that it is also a real boon to my fiction writing. I now feel that all prose writers should study poetry and all poets should study prose writing. So towards that end, I am making it a daily practice to engage in poetry. I have read the site rules, I can't promise I'll stick around, but I am gonna check it out and see what you all have going on here.

Owing to the fact that many of the same words are employed in both poetry and prose (we'll ignore the
order of their deployment for the moment), it does make great sense to study both. Though, and you can
take this as you might,  engaging in poetry as a daily practice will utterly ruin your ability to produce logically
coherant prose. I'd venture once a week as the absolute maximum.

That said, I see no reason to let that worry you in the slightest as prose is highly over-rated and the ability
to write it well ultimately leads to Stephen King novels. Am I disparaging his novels? No, of course not,
he's a wonderful writer. What I'm saying is that trying to compete with him will destroy your character.
No number of cold showers will ever be able to build it back.

A sincere welcome to you; may your desires complement your life,
Ray

Hello everyone,

my name is Lisa, I am from Austria and I love writing poetry. My mother tounge is German, but some of the poems I have written in or translated into English. I believe they have got something going for them (well, who doesn't think that to be case for their own words) but I am aware that I could do with some guidance, especially concerning grammar and tenses (the different past tenses are very hard for me to get right all the time).
I admit, the "3-critiques" rule is exceedingly hard for me to fulfill, as I do not see myself knowledgable enough for doing so. If anything in a poem should strike me as "odd", the chances are, this is down to me and not the author. But, I respect this "give-and-take" rule;  I have been looking for a community critically looking at my poems, so I can gain from their experience and get better; and I guess I will have to do my best to give back what you ask for and find something still worth of writing, even if I lack any professionalism.

Welcome Lisa!
And yes, any knowledge of German is certainly a disadvantage (as I can personally attest to) when
writing English poetry, as it biases one to a way of thinking (rational) that isn't prevalent in English.

That said, the freedom to not have some meaningless gender associated with every damn noun more
than makes up for the bizarrely formulated English tense forms. Besides, even native English speakers
get these wrong all the time, so you won't stand out that much.  

If you harbour even the slightest doubts about my sincerity, you're right.
But I am quite sincere in welcoming you to the PigPen.

Viel Spaß!
Ray