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Demi - Glace

Blog Posted by Craig Cornish: 9/17/2023 8:23:00 PM

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Date: 9/20/2023 9:16:00 AM
Hello, I'm coming here to thank you for the kind support that you've shown towards me, it truly means a lot. Especially, when I'm very new to this platform and possibly one of the youngest here too.. Thank you for your precious guidance. And I always look for various opportunities of learning and growth, so definitely this is a very helpful blog. Like Ink said, using less adjectives is definitely a challenge for me as well but I will really try to do that and refine my techniques, always good to try different styles. Also, I must say that your contest looks very interesting to me and I might write on it whenever the muse inspires.. It's certainly a very unique idea! Have a wonderful day :)
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Cornish Avatar
Craig Cornish
Date: 9/20/2023 10:21:00 AM
Hiya, you are wise beyond your years and that's evident in your writing and your maturity about life. I started writing in high school also - it's at the very least a great way to express and release inner emotions - from there we can try to make it artful or just simply release? You do both! Life flashes by so quickly, I was your age just yesterday (57 years ago - good god!) and probably older than your grandparents but ... it is, and will always be only a number - the rest is up to us to celebrate or lament - I choose celebrate. There's an old proverb that states that we're not old until our regrets take the place of our dreams --- keep celebrating and keep dreaming ... hugs!
Date: 9/19/2023 1:17:00 PM
I didn’t read this before but i am now and this is something ive been mentored and reminded to do too, as a learner, i appreciate this, as you are an experienced poet, its always good to learn. Ive been looking at your contest very interesting and i will challenge myself to write with less adjectives and do somethng. Thank you for the advice. Sincere guidance like this is always appreciated but not when some others bully poets like me and hiya. Loved this blog
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Empress Avatar
Ink Empress
Date: 9/20/2023 8:45:00 PM
Dear Craig, you must be a teacher or professor by profession? This explanation is one of the most creative and artistic explanations iv ever read in ages, a lesson ill forever remember, thank you so much. Yes I finished my poem not sure if it is good enough but it is the experience that counts and i think with time we learn. Look forward to read and learn more, appreciate your time.
Cornish Avatar
Craig Cornish
Date: 9/20/2023 5:05:00 AM
It's more how you think it flows and looks and feels like a poem more than it looks and reads like restructured prose which is the most difficult part of a poem like this or any poem in specific form. Don't know if this is a poor analogy, but it's like an addition on a house, it shouldn't look like an addition, it should look like it's always been there (belongs). Like the necklace with a beautiful dress, if all that is noticed is the necklace, it's a failure because it's only part of the whole.
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Ink Empress
Date: 9/19/2023 10:45:00 PM
Tom Woody i appreciate your support always! And you too is one of them very honest with your feedback. I appreciate that
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Ink Empress
Date: 9/19/2023 10:44:00 PM
I am left with 6 lines in my poem for your contest was fun doing it , good brain exercise, but i will have to make it more concise and try doing with less adjectives. I wanted to ask you whether 15 syllables per line is considered too long for a line? Wasnt sure. Please let me know. And yes, my father always tells me to keep learning, always be a learner, so yes, i am always learning. This is one reason i enjoy soup, because of blogs like this. Thank you and thats a brilliant explanation!
Cornish Avatar
Craig Cornish
Date: 9/19/2023 7:18:00 PM
There's always that edge - the chaos theory of being close enough to the cliff to not fall off, but close enough to see...beyond? Thank you - we learn from each other! Actually, my current contest is not really a good inspiration and I won't do the same again, because it's difficult enough to be creative without last words being forced upon us--write on! My bad - the next more inspirational, I hope!
Woody Avatar
Tom Woody
Date: 9/19/2023 3:09:00 PM
You're so gracious inky
Date: 9/18/2023 10:20:00 AM
“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” ~ Stephen King “Adverbs are the tool of the lazy writer.” ~ Mark Twain “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.” ~ Mark Twain
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Arlo Parker
Date: 9/18/2023 5:45:00 PM
Season, taste, season as you go AND doesn't the reader eventually "finish" the poem? :-)
Fowler Avatar
Linda Alice Fowler
Date: 9/18/2023 11:38:00 AM
I read these quotes at the top of my "working poetry" file whenever I begin a new endeavor. :)
Cornish Avatar
Craig Cornish
Date: 9/18/2023 10:51:00 AM
Exactly - My second artistic love is culinary and spices are essential, but too much or too many, destroys a dish. With writing we can remove them (embellishments), but they cannot be removed from food - yet always added. Some put their pen down and see perfection - I agree with Charlotte that "a poem is never truly finished"... except for those with some truly significant emotional attachment. Thank you, Linda for your very pertinent comment.
Date: 9/18/2023 7:57:00 AM
i would also add that a poem is never truly finished! i agree there shouldn't be so many adjectives and adverbs that they weigh a poem down; if they're layered too thickly the reader can become overwhelmed and can't catch a breath; less is sometimes more..thought provoking blog, craig
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Cornish Avatar
Craig Cornish
Date: 9/20/2023 10:26:00 AM
Always get lost in your writing Charlotte - hmm, interesting that when you're lost, you find things you didn't know you were looking for?
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Linda Alice Fowler
Date: 9/18/2023 11:34:00 AM
I agree Charlotte. Less IS more and a poem is never truly "finished". :)
Date: 9/18/2023 6:38:00 AM
So many writing styles. Who is to say one is better than another? Some fill their poetry with colors, textures, feelings, emotions. Others write bare bones with few words to express a feeling, or an idea. Still others, like myself, enjoy telling a poetic story with a set theme, a beginning, and an end. Not trying to argue. Just saying there's room for all types of artistic expression. Interesting blog Craigster
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Craig Cornish
Date: 9/18/2023 10:15:00 AM
I'll leave this for now - Robert's blog post takes priority...
Woody Avatar
Tom Woody
Date: 9/18/2023 8:00:00 AM
But I do agree there's a tried and true path toward improvement. Reading the greats. Studying forms. Practice practice practice. Lots of hard work.
Woody Avatar
Tom Woody
Date: 9/18/2023 7:57:00 AM
Poetry is so subjective. In the past I would have argued your same point. And, like anything else in life, there's bad, good, better, best. In every field of endeavor. But over the years I've learned to be more flexible in my poetic views, less rigid. There's room for everyone
Cornish Avatar
Craig Cornish
Date: 9/18/2023 7:37:00 AM
True, there is room for all types of expression but like anything in life, we can strive to learn how to polish our skills. Some can take the same collection of flowers and produce a magnificent arrangement, while others produce something not so special with the same flowers. No one is stopping anyone from being average if they're happy with it, but some want to do "better" and there IS a way. Yet, we are all restricted by either lack of effort or lack of inherent ability or both. Read up on adjectives and adverbs (overuse) and in NO way am I implying bare bones.
Date: 9/18/2023 4:33:00 AM
..."a book ends, but a poem never truly does...That one line, I believe, sums it all up.
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Date: 9/17/2023 11:43:00 PM
I enjoyed this truly inspired write, Craig.
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Craig Cornish
Date: 9/18/2023 12:51:00 PM
Thanks Su
Date: 9/17/2023 8:57:00 PM
Demi-glace: a reduction. Poetry: a distillation. Heart and soul emulsified to produce a delicious and substantive essence revealing life in ways unique to every poet and a declaration of viewpoints on any subject that one's mind must, indeed must, announce. Evocative Blog, CC. :o)
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Cornish Avatar
Craig Cornish
Date: 9/18/2023 12:50:00 PM
Right on Arlo - even if it's rot-gut...it's soul!

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