Steemitschool Poetry Class - Critique Thursday Class #9 - 24/05/18 - Recording and Notes

Yesterday's class of @d-pend's Steemitschool 100 Day Poetry Challenge has been the ninth "Critique Thursday" class. To follow is a recording of the class. It's only sound, but has been uploaded to Youtube due to it being the best available place to upload it.

This week's class had no lecture portion, so let's dive straight into the video and the notes. You can head over to the episode's Youtube page for clickable time-stamps as well.

I recently published a post providing an outline, a sort of rudimentary guide on how to critique poetry, so if you want to try your hand at giving critique, give it a look!

(This time around, Discord was especially non-cooperative, but! For the workshop portion of the class, there's video accompanying the sound.)

The class opened with an overview of the promised "special critique" portion - I would pick a poem by a user, that is 60 days old, or older, so it won't be as fresh in the person's mind, and there'll be less knee-jerk reactions. I posted the poem to Google Document, and then asked the poet who wrote it, to edit it.

They outline what they don't like in the poem, and the rest of the people in class try to help them improve it.
When you write a poem, or anything really, you are making decisions: Every word choice is a choice of that word, and choosing not to use other similar words. As you improve in analyzing what makes poems work, or not, you subconsciously bring those tools to bear while writing as well.
This class is about training yourself to consciously edit your pieces, in a more orderly fashion.

At the 5:30 mark we go over our first poem, @hazem91's "Two of a Kind".

21:44 brings us to the second poem, @d-pend's "At the Bottom of the Pond".
(My volume levels go much lower at this point, apologies.)

This is a poem we workshopped, so consider checking the YouTube video if you want to see the changes we wrought.
It was lengthy, and it was rife with Discord problems, but we persevered.

Between Discord issues, starting 15 minutes late, and the workshop section going long, we didn't cover many poems. But, I feel much has been accomplished. I hope you lot will join us next week, and please tell me in the comment section how you feel about the new workshop section!

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Join Us! And Structure Reminder:

Steemitschool Poetry hosts a daily lesson at UTC 5-7 PM at the Steemitschool Discord server, 5 days a week (Saturday and Sunday are off). Join the Discord server here. Thanks to Daniel @d-pend Pendergraft for organizing it!

In order to have a poem critiqued in class you must:

1. Leave a substantive comment on a poem on Steemit in the week after Thursday 7 PM UTC (1 PM Eastern), when a class ends, and before Wednesday 4 PM UTC (Noon Eastern time).
2. You must furthermore link me to the comment you've left, either as a reply to this post, or via a DM on Discord (I'm Thunder_God#4441) by the above time.
3. If you have extenuating circumstances that stop you from leaving said comment on other people's poetry, you must communicate them to me by the aforementioned time.
4. You do not actually have to make it to class. We have the recordings. But if you don't make it to class, you need to link me either here or via a Discord DM which poem you'd like us to go over.
5. Poems must be under 250 words. If you can have someone go over it for grammatical errors before sharing it, that would be ideal, but not a requirement.

People who do not make it to class, or who left underwhelming comments will be pushed back in terms of priority.

At the end of every class if time permits we'll have "Also-rans," which is in case we have extra time, and some people did not follow the above guidelines, or their comments were underwhelming, where we'd give a poem 5 minutes. We'd read it, provide quick comments by one or two members, and move on.

Requirements For Next Week's Special Activity:

I am planning a special activity starting from next week. It has stricter requirements because I will need to prepare for 30-60 minutes per participant. These entries will also take more time in class, so the number of them we'll go over is going to be very limited, and will be done on a first-come, first-serve basis!

1. Leave an extra-substantive comment. Go an extra mile.
2. You need to have poetry on Steemit published 60 or more days ago. This shouldn't be an issue for Challenge Participants, but might be for others.
3. You must make it to class, you must have a working microphone, an environment conducive to speaking on it (not while driving, or in the midst of a party, etc.), and must be willing to talk on voice, at length.
4. You must submit your extra-substantive comment to me by 4 AM UTC, Wednesday. That is midnight Eastern time, between Tuesday and Wednesday. I need the extra time to prepare. Again, the comment had to be left after Thursday, 7 PM UTC (1 PM Eastern), when the prior week's class ended.

Half-assed comments will not be accepted. If you've done your best, even if you are struggling, it is good enough.
If you have medical issues that hinder your ability to leave comments, please talk to me in private and we'll work it out.

Thanks to @tygertyger, @acousticsteveo, @liverussian, @nerdykim, @sayee, and @d-pend for giving critique in yesterday's class! Thanks to @liverussian, @hazem91, and @tygertyger who took the time to leave critique comments on others' poems this past week.

And thanks to anyone else who tuned in, or has checked this post out!

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Check Out the Prior Classes Here:

(Don't upvote, older posts past pay-out.)

• Week #1 - Including "lecture" portion on what critique is, its different forms, and how and why to go about it.
• Week #2 - where we speak of what you should critique, reasons to not share critique, and reasons to.
• Week #3 - Nothing but good ol' critique.
• Week #4 - Critique, and topped off with a special critique we gave to a poem by Percy Shelley.
• Week #5 - Critique, with a couple of short detours to discuss questions raised during class.
• Week #6 - Critique.
• Week #7 - Critique, including of a poem by John Keats.
• Weel 8 - Critique, "also-rans" (short 5 minutes critiques), and a poem by Emily Dickinson.

Check out my latest posts:

• Freedom - A short poem that was excerpted from another poem I worked on before.
• A Handful of Haiku to Greet the Day - Five pieces of haiku.

art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics

The image used for the video has been made by @d-pend for the challenge and is used with permission.

© Guy Shalev 2018.