Great Writing - Home > Poetry > What I learnt today
READING ROOM
Great Writing - Home
Read and review others' work
Articles on writing
Advice from the community
COMMUNITY
Talk to others in the forums
Events and Competitions
GW News
ABOUT GREAT WRITING
All About Us
Contact Us
WORK AWAITING REVIEW
GW IS...
Great Writing creative writing community is designed to prompt ideas and provide inspiration and motivation within aspiring and amateur authors. Whatever your topic; from love poetry to Doctor Who or Harry Potter fan fiction, Great Writing's online writing group is where you can make new friends and improve your creative writing.
WHO'S ONLINE
We have 1454 guests online and 4 members online
Poetry
What I learnt today
By chic_leo
04 September 2006
A nightmarish vision of somebody's first time away from home. Or rather, the small problems that spread out of control when you have to fend for yourself. This is still very much in the rough, so much constructive criticism is needed!

What I learnt today
I learnt that if you try
to see your face in a spoon
while there is soup in it,
there is no way the soup
will not end up on your new jeans.
I learnt that tomato soup
and armani jeans
don't go.
They just don't.
I learnt that armani jeans
with tomato soup
doesn't taste so good.
I learnt that armani jeans
with tomato soup
turn water a funny colour.
I learnt that when my mother told me
not to fill the basin to the brim
there was a reason for that.
And I should have listened.
I learnt that drying clothes
by bodyheat
is a surprisingly....
...
lengthy
....
process.
I learnt that wondering around in your underwear
is ok!
As long as it's your house.
And the milkman
window cleaner
postman
neighbour doesn't come to the door.
I learnt that tomato soup doesn't
come out
of armani jeans.
I learnt that bleach on denim
is not the same
as bleached denim.
I learnt that I should never have left
home.

Reviews

Written by isobel* (26 comments posted) 4th September 2006
i particulary liked to hear this read aloud, my favourite part being the rhythm change in the centre (centre-ish anyway!)...it flips along quite nicely, and that blunt realisation at the close works well for me also. 
 
i can't criticise much here, but i did stumble in the 6th line, ever so slightly, although this might be my own mind just tying me in knots :)  
 
cheers, 
isobel x

Written by chic_leo (15 comments posted) 4th September 2006
Thanks for the feedback! The style I write in is very much a part of the aural tradition of poetry - I hear it in my head before it comes out on the page - so yes, in an ideal world this poem would come as an audio file. 
 
I see what you mean about the sixth line...would it work better if I split the fifth and sixth lines differently? 
 
there is no way the soup will not 
end up on your new jeans 
 
or should I even change it to a positive statement? 

Written by Phil (6832 comments posted) 4th September 2006
Enjoyed this alot. I liked the way the ideas were chained together through to the end.  
 
Everybody reacts differently. I didn't mind the sixth line, but I'd have missed out the tenth. For me, it interrupts the flow. 
 
Entertaining, light-hearted piece. 
 
Phil.

Written by dakota (2 comments posted) 4th September 2006
I liked this a lot - it make me laugh aloud. 
 
Controversially, I like the repetition of the tenth line, I think it's an effective break in rhythm. 
 
I very much enjoyed the use of ellipses in the middle, I think they're used effectively and just enough - anymore would have been overkill. 
 
A fun, skilful piece.

Written by isobel* (26 comments posted) 4th September 2006
...i think myself, i would have possibly chosen the positive, but it looks like you know what you are doing! 
 
 
x

Written by chic_leo (15 comments posted) 5th September 2006
Thanks for all the comments peeps - I'm going to take another look at this sometime soon and see if I can tweak it a little based on your feedback. I've really enjoyed looking at your work too, cos all you guys write in a style that's slightly different from mainstream poetry, AND I LOVE IT! :grin  
 
Thanks again 
CL 
x

   Only registered users can rate and write comments.
   Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!

 Previous item   Next item