PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

First, before you object to my own failures to reply (and that has happened on some of my poems, I admit), these failures were due to illness, or to my email not bringing the comments to my attention; or my failure to check my email consistently, so that the notifications got buried on earlier pages that were no longer the "main page."

There are several Poets on postpoems that do not seem to bother to acknowledge either comments or PM inquiries.  To me, this is the epitome of rudeness and discourtesy inappropriate to the sense of community at postpoems.  Now, I shall admit, that I happen to dislike the poetry and style of these poets; not because they do not reply to comments or PM's. but because I find their poems to contain what John Milton described (in his remarks prefatory to Paradise Lost) as "wretched matter and lame Meter," and because they rhyme with to much end-stop and not enough enjambment.  But this is merely subjectivel on my part.  What is objective is that one can look through their lists of poems, see that many of their poems shows "1" under the coment column (meaning a comment does not receive a reply of acknowledgement or of gratitude); and those few poems that show "2" or "3" (in the comment column) do not include a reply from the poet.  Some of these poems have received comments from the most senior, or refined, Poets on postpoems; yet, the recipients of these comments do not take the trouble to even add a two word ("Thank you") reply for the privilege of receiving comments from these Poets.

I understand discrepancy, inadvertant failure to reply, or obstacles to reply such as illness, downtime, etc.  But, at least in my own case, I have tried to find the unacknowledged comments (some, I am ashamed to admit, from over ten years ago) and at least offer a sincere, but embarrassingly belated, reply.  Today, just to verify what I wanted to write in this essay, I viewed one of the "unresponsive" poet's list of poems, paying attention to the numbers in the comment column.  In almost two years' of poems, most of the comments were limited to "1," meaning that the poet did not reply at all.  Those that had more than one comment, also lacked replies from the poet.

If this has happened simply through deliberate intention, it is---in my opinion; and I suggest here---the height of rudeness, discourtesy, and disregard for the community of postpoems.  Especially when this poet receives a comment for a far more talented Poet (although that does not narrow the field very much), the minimum comment, a "Thank you" is required by simple, civil courtesy.  And yet, such comments are missing.

Perhaps unresponsive poets---most of whom also seem to be cornpone philosophers---ought to review their lack of manners before they post any further demonstrations of their lack of poetic ability.

Starward