hailthorn011 wrote:I'm not entirely sure what it's about either.
I guess that explains why it doesn't make much sense
I'm sorry, you're not going to be pleased with my post, but I'm going to say it anyway because no one ever gets better without going through the pain of negative review.
I didn't like it. It's fine for a poem to be abstract, but this just looks like you wrote down whatever came to your mind without really trying to make it work together.
Poetry is very hard. A good poem makes words work together phonetically, rhythmically, and in meaning. I can't find the music in yours, and rereading it three times I still have no idea what it tells me.
Also:
With the innocence of a whisper on the wind
Poems are the places were stretched metaphors are allowed, but please check what you’re saying exactly. How is a whisper innocent? Is this really the best word to help evocate innocence in your reader’s mind? Or maybe innocence is not really what you wanted to evocate? Thinking carefully about your metaphors will make them work better. Even if the reader doesn't notice how much work you put in a few words, it will leave a much stronger impression on him. It's worth it.
A smile as beautiful as any sunset
Don’t use cliché. Poems are short, it’s not worth using up lines to say things others have said before. I know, it’s hard, because there are so many of them and they come so easily to the mind. But what the hell, you’re a writer, aren’t you? Have no mercy for cliché, hunt them down and rewrite them. Be creative.
Lately I said to a go player who posted his short story for review that words in a story are just like stones on a go board. You need to make them work efficiently to reach the goal you have set to yourself (an atmosphere, an emotion, ...). Whether you can put together a piece of art in a night, a week or a year depends on your character or talent, but no matter how, you should know what your words are supposed to accomplish (be it something as undefined as simply hope or nostalgy).
A last tip: it's good to read out poems to yourself loud. Try to forget about the actual meaning of the words, as if it was some foreign language. And then try to find the rhythm in your verses.
And don't feel distressed because of critic. As I said, good poetry is very, very hard to achieve.