How To Honour Our Poethood? Poem by M D Dinesh Nair

We may note that some of our poet friends stoop down to levels of mudslinging at those whom they don`t like, making derogatory remarks, posting hurting comments and then managing to win the appreciation of a few for some other writes in all hypocrisy.

Another wrong habit to be done away with is excessive submission of many poems at a time on a regular basis!

In this context, May I propose a few codes for our self conduct if we aim at a decent stay over the PH?

1.THE NEED FOR SUBMISSION OF READABLE STUFF

Everything we write won`t make poetry just because the name of the website is POEM HUNTER.COM

Some of our friends submit more than 10 'poems' over a week`s time making it difficult for their friends even to go through all of them, leave aside time for writing comments.

A good member may preferably submit a work of readable stuff keeping in mind the wide exposure of their works on the website.

We need to submit our works in a limited number over a period of days which may be a week or even a month.If we begin to write poems like hen laying eggs out of a routine interest, quality writes will not be submitted and even if 'they' are there, many of us will not be read by others.

So there is a need for a self imposed and obvious restriction regarding the number of poems submitted at a go.

Our great English Poets or American poets of the period from 1300 AD till the late 1990s did not write so many poems though it was their profession! They wrote less than 100 poems altogether and they still live in our minds as master poets of all times.

See now the cases of some of our friends who have already written thousands of 'poems' and there are many 'potential' members who can reach such numbers in no time!

Think it over, please.If found unread by any, why don`t they delete many of such poems?

2.THE NEED FOR MINDING OUR LANGUAGE

This means both - the standard English to be used on this international forum and the control of the mind that speaks through the lines.
Some of our friends write on without caring for the grammatical, linguistic or syntactical rules the English language insists on.In case we have our own difficulty to express in moderately quality English, we can depend on the Google translator.

In many cases we can take care of our language by keeping a good dictionary by us for ready reference and some mistakes of omission or commission can be rectified.

There is a need for assessing the levels our own actual proficiency in English and each member has to remind himself/herself of the need for checking the works written in a hurry or quite mechanically.

If any member is found to be writing in any English that is not tolerable, our friends from the English speaking countries may better correct them, guide them or better even ask them to learn good English and come back to the PH at a later time.

A clear or distinct mindset has to guide them all in this regard!

3.THE NEED FOR STOPPING THE MUDSLINGING

This is not known to many of us.Some our friends regularly and directly or indirectly resort to this practice. Some of our 'friends' write comments which amount to derogatory statements, some write comments which have indirect criticism which can hurt the poet in one way or other.

This is done by writing 'poems' indirectly addressed to some other members and only those who understand what went wrong in the past between the writer and the addressed, one can really make some sense out of such writes.
Otherwise it is done by directly posting certain comments which could have better been sent as messages..

Still some of our friends cannot understand whether it is real or not and if that is the case, please read my first sentence under the sub title.

We are supposedly on a friendly forum for poets which is not essentially a well tested international space for us.The PH is a forum for every Tom, Dick and Harry and our popularity stunts have no real glow here.

We are expected to maintain minimum decorum as long as we continue to be here and we need not be here to expose our temper, arrogance, egos or erudition of any kind.

Individual mud slinging has to be strictly avoided and anyone resorting to such things should be strictly avoided or targeted by us at another level without fear.

It`s time to sit up and think over, dear ones.

4.THE NEED FOR READING AND THEN ASSESSING

Some of our friends pretend to have read their friends works and come out with comments like, 'I am speechless, Simply superb, A great write! , I enjoyed reading it' etc every time without making any reference to the theme, the style, the rendering, the message or the quality or diction of the poem. This is real HUMBUG.

Let us read and then write comment. Let us not do it mechanically just trying to impress our 'friends'.

In this regard, it is better to keep in mind the need for honouring the real poet friends and their sincere efforts. Let our comments be minimum in number if we cannot write many but let us write sensibly.

Similarly let us write only necessary comments and let us not just write adjectives like, ' Great write! , Excellent or Beautiful! etc even when a single glimpse over the work has told us, ' It is useless a write'.

Let us call a spade a spade or just say nothing at all.

5.THE NEED FOR ENCOURAGING THE NEW POEM HUNTER MEMBERS.

There are many new poem hunter members submitting quality poems in a random way. They don`t know how to get read by us, how to go up nor do they know the tactics of sending requests.

We have to read their poems now and then. While spending a considerable amount of time [say for example 2 hrs at a stretch]we may spend at least 15 minutes for reading and commenting on the writes of the new members.

As I have mentioned here the popularity of the members over here has nothing to do with the real talent of any member and very often you see the ranking varying in higher degrees just because it`s a farce at times.The most popular member of 2007 a poet from Canada is nowhere there now, a topper of 2008 is not at all in the top 100 now!

So the popularity need not be our CONCERN as long as we write moderately good poems.

*Our friends who are on the top as of now please, don`t misunderstand this statement.What I mean to say is you are really honoured here by the others.But even if your ranks collapse, please don`t regret that you are in lost glory now.

With all humility let me say that even I was in the first five in November 2009 and have never been able to return to the first 10 since then.I long for it though I don`t regret about it.Two times my old sites got crashed and this is my third one. Still I am around you for I have been in touch with most of my friends.

It is time to encourage the new entrants by reading their writes now and then.

The new members please, note that they can attract the old members` attention by first commenting on their works. A mutual intimacy slowly developed will surely pay rich REWARDS in course of time.

It is up to you all to support my proposal or ignore it.

.....................................................................................

My above proposals are presented here just for our common interests being taken note of and something being found to be done by all of us in a significant way.
Your comments are welcome, of course hopefully bearing in mind the essence of the proposals 3 and 4 if you don`t mind.