James C. Horak's E-Mail Address: jchorak7441@sbcglobal.net

So far 709 People have Entered a Personal Profile on The Poetic Link! Click Here to see the rest of them or to Add your Own Personal Profile Now!

Below you will see ALL of the Critiques that James C. Horak has given on The Poetic Link.
By Clicking a Poem Title, you can view the poem that is associated with each Critique.

If you would like to view all of James C. Horak's Poetry just Click Here.

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

Poem Title	Poet Name	Critique Given by James C. Horak	Critique Date
Sonnet Writing	cheyenne smyth	This poem is enhanced by its use of Middle English as few are. Another happy note so much often "coloring" the sonnet. Hope I'm not what metaphor given the Raven. But if so, I've well earned it in the eyes of classicists. And yes indeed, you're on the way to earning the opinion...can't fault you there either. (I never quibble with justice.) But please don't give up the other effort either...you'll be good at it. And now I must find balm to help heal hurt feelings. And what am I to do for dinner? JCH	2010-01-18 17:21:19
Once Upon His Desuetude Rode He Into Town	Thomas Edward Wright	Well, Thomas, a good excursion into intellectual frivolity, its own most astute slam at redundance. Although apparent influences from the better modern poets abound, yours is a unique and interesting poem. The underlying play, "tusking the white elephant"...who, "has no tusk", like a current through passage is not missed...nor the more obvious euphemisms for life trying to grasp at any significance of being. So you know of the "dwarf", the doorman between two worlds, adding significance to any ceremony context implied by your use of "Ciborium". This interdimensional depth and the game of chance you play, bested by, "Three Ghosts and a pair of whores" is, by no accident I wager, stark symbolism. And from another work of stark symbolism, Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me, do you know why the FBI assistant director, when sending his agent into the field at the airport, uses his own daughter to mimic and sign his directions? A different form of "tusking"?...no, something very real and close to home. Enjoyed your colorful and provoking poem very much and welcome to our contest. You're off to a good start. And glad you've shaken off the dust ("Desuetude".) JCH	2010-01-18 09:42:17
Take or Give Out	DeniMari Z.	Certainly the best poem you've done in a while, DeniMarie. Tight to meaning without being contrived (excellent the subtle rhyme of "next" with "expect".) Broad universality of meaning, applicable to all of social consciousness and/or the downtrodden. The natural tones and rhythems are like falling leaves, so lightly taken...yet profound. Excellent sentiments abounding with the truth of human discontentment and its, quite often, false sense of values. Statements like, "Favor those humbled in life" are resounding. Excellent poem.	2010-01-17 12:49:58
Alone	cheyenne smyth	The stark, though rarely palpable is visited, companion are we in this just as much as in enjoying a game of sport. Strangely perhaps even brought closer. So that in daily tragedies we are not alone. Still the visits can be intense, so much so we can't imagine another having shared them. These moments are the most dismal with an added feeling of abandon. Then, even walls seem to mock us and the shadow play upon them just as you describe. Imagery well connected enough to envision for you did not describe it, you portrayed it. Every difference in the world, my dear. JCH	2010-01-16 22:36:30
From beyond	Mark Andrew Hislop	Well, yes, it reaches broader. A defiance to encapsulation. That we are sometimes more for what we are reaching than what is measured in the eye. Brazil could be a euphemism for that expectation, the place of "true magical script". A place that Sam Lowry, in the 1985 movie, Brazil, mentally designates an escape from his Orwellian world. At another level you are more than that for which you believe you have been taken. How many times we have all seen those we care about slight us by taking an inferior partner. And we'll never know how much is intended for just hurting us and how much is just poor taste. You, like me, may just attribute too much thought to others. It might surprise you on what thin basis preferences can be made. And/or how much revenge plays in all of it. JCH	2010-01-16 19:23:06
Left Behind (Revised)	cheyenne smyth	Yes, this is to what modern poetry advances. Many ways to describe it, it is what impressionism was to painting, to poetry. You did very well and you'll get better until it's just as natural to you as iambic pentameter and the heroic couplet. As close as it comes in prose is stream of consciousness best exampled by James Joyce. But never successful in the sense this indisctinct connectiveness is to poetry. Few have ever perfected it, if any, but it can be done and many glorious attempts have been managed. It is the flower forever opening. Think of it that way. Terry is well on her way to doing it and you might as well. Non-determinism in the novel revitalized literature, this may very well do the same for poetry. It would be a joy to me to see you and/or Terry one day click off a masterpiece that has no direct work by which to compare it. (I never liked the adage, "Nothing new under the sun".) JCH	2010-01-15 19:38:30
Sand Castles	cheyenne smyth	I would like so much better, The sands are castle's keep (look up the medieval meaning of "keep".} The line is pressed for meaning otherwise. Instead of "spoon" think about, plumb "their hearts to please" where the verb pertains to taking depth with a plum-bob. Like Samuel Johnson once said, "where it strains one to make sense, is the insensible". Meaning he viewed art as needing to make sense. When I applaud you for tight imagery you are fulfilling this demand well. Here you don't. The next two verses fly, some license with "lilt and lute" but the assonance achieved is lovely. I am impressed that you can make breaks in rhyming pattern work so well. Indeed one should NOT feel constrained to anything that dampens a poem's success...especially form. A little work and this comes up to the level of other poems of yours I've praised. "While beauty breathes for lover's sake" is an indepth multifacet of meaning I find a grand closing line. JCH	2010-01-15 09:31:42
At Critical Mass	Mark Andrew Hislop	This challenge to those that would reduce others to their own oftentimes thin frame of reference, is powerful AND applicable as much to many other matters than those of the love/celibacy debate. Exotic (..."a dragonfly dispensed from its pupa,/I emerge in the clarion stupor/of desire in its brightest sharpest flame.") in imagery yet poignant in focal intensity ("I am, the overloaded atoms's whirl/I am, the white-hot core...) that dispenses well with the easy judgement. Yes, no one can know anothers searing to the depths from "love's wound" and the wise do not try. And, I'm certain, you most of all wish they didn't. Very interesting language, powerful imagery and highly evocative. Shall we decline, "object turning" to some safe double intende'? Very good and am overjoyed to see you participating in the contest. JCH	2010-01-12 23:44:05
My Votes For December	DeniMari Z.	Yes, Cheyenne, is gifted. I'm quite happy you've indulged myself and others in giving some accounting to your vote. I know it can sometimes seem an arbitrary thing, but less openness is worse. As it's proved to be in the past. JCH	2010-01-11 11:43:16
Autumn Echoes	cheyenne smyth	I would like so much more, fade and fall. That third verse is eloquent and elevates this poem abundantly. Slightly less so are the final lines. Just a little polish on the rest. Tight imagery is your trademark, but take a leap every now and then. Some really beautiful lines. JCH	2010-01-11 11:38:30
My December Votes	Duane J Jackson	I well appreciate your regard for Unseen Obvious, my friend. It is wonderful the effort you've put into personally inviting poets back. Mary Coffman was approaching her own style (something you've well attained) before she left and it would be a joy to watch as she picks up where she left off. The breadth of imagery she has exhibited is a pleasure to behold. I hope she realizes she's a born poet. But there are others here... MSS, if you're listening...we need you. You have developed the penetrating critique we need most. JCH	2010-01-11 11:31:48
Two Step	Dellena Rovito	Ohhh, this is clever, never once breaking the dual pattern until the final statement. Making that statement that much more powerful...yet you restrain to the wonderful illusion, "display it in your dance". You put some work into this and it shows. I hope everyone appreciates just how much. Well textured with profound (and true) statements, it is a delight how you reserve the rhyme pattern for the extended lines. I am taken with your poem, my dear. Enjoyed it very much. Now stay healthy and it's win/win. JCH	2010-01-10 09:52:03
Raoul	Medard Louis Lefevre Jr.	I would suggest replacing "extermination" with extinguishing. The former word has adroit connotations I don't think you want since the tone the poem sets is subtle. It is interesting how your lines broaden to pertain to such a host of "saints" extending well beyond one religion, one ethnicity. The process "evil" realizes IS an incorporation and your lines, "The blackness of man/Incorporated into evil" appreciates it well. I have always maintained that the intense is not that well served by structured form. Taking extreme license to poem this in free verse is a good choice. Still, your next to last verse, has the multi-facets of good imagery as it plays on meaning with inversion. Your last line, an open commentary on society as well as saintly works, is a good summation. Men like Raoul Wallenberg should always be remembered. In your subtlety you have succeeded well beyond "shouts". JCH	2010-01-10 09:39:26
Pushed Away	DeniMari Z.	My dear, I have several issues with this New Age condensation of ideal into "soulmate". Like something cookie-cut to fit into your life without work, endeavor to understand and patience...all keeping you looking for an ideal instead of making something ideal. It doesn't exist and it robs you of taking responsiblity for what is in your own sphere of influence you can find if you're not wrapped up in delusion. Most men endure women over something so singular and non-aesthetic it would amaze you. An older man I knew for a very long time once told me after I had a reaction to his wife's controlling obsession, "I'm just crazy about the way she smells". They had been together 30 years and remained so another 15, until he died. "Soulmate" implies harmonics...and nothing about that EVER stays the same. Was not meant to. Most women, if a man is ever "crazy about them" can keep them. But not without effort, not without probing into their joys and fulfilling them with newfound freshness. You just have to find the man that keeps you enjoying doing this. And, damn it, open up so he can do the same. In every 100 available men you'd consider dating is one that could work something worthwhile out with you. IF YOU'RE NOT LOOKING FOR THE READYMADE. Now, no more whining. JCH	2010-01-08 23:21:36
Lingering Memory	cheyenne smyth	I would if using punctuation at all, place a comma instead of a period after nap. Stylization of all else can be accounted an aide to reading. It is very interesting how the first line depends so heavily on the title for astute meaning. Rhyme is nice and tight without seeming contrived, your growing trademark. The last line draws up something of a time quandary but I like it. If you would like a slight more flair try awaits instead of "waits". JCH	2010-01-08 22:58:23
Reflections	Dellena Rovito	It is so good, my dear, to have you back and cranking. We've all missed you and your poems. I suggest changing the second line to, Like prisms of light's refractions. Sound neither effects prisms or is refracted. All else is fine. I especially like the line, "I write, to perhaps explain myself..." Yes indeed, mostly to ourselves. You have read about the contest, I presume? If not, read my submission, Please Read. JCH	2010-01-08 22:50:21
Left Behind	cheyenne smyth	Cheyenne, I want this rewritten. The illusion of indistinctness is part of the free verse virtue; it allows an interplay between poem and your reader of being able to "jump" interpretation with personal aspects of the imagination. The difference between a photograph and abstract art. Never, never string together into one long sentence any direct thought. WE WANT to differentiate from prose dramatically and take poetic license to its fullest. Don't use articles when they are not necessary...something like "sream of consciousness" is even prefereable. I'm voting for this poem on potential, the potential I see easliy possible. Show me I'm right. But first visit the work of the more established modern poets. The one person who does this best here is Terry Anctil. JCH	2010-01-07 20:18:28
Morning Song	Dan D Lavigne	Remove "existance" and you will have a charming poem. I don't much care for "Center" since it's a technical term dealing with imposed mental conditioning, but perhaps it has more innocent use as well. I like very much the opening line and its illusion. Anyone ever having been at sea will well appreciate it. Good to have you here, Dan, and hope you will continue to submit. We have a contest running over the course of the three months, January, February and March. And we're giving some good prize money. See my, Please Read, submission for more details. JCH	2010-01-03 21:46:26
A Gracious Good Year	Gene Dixon	And a Happy New Year to you, Gene. It's really no custom to post non-poetry here; I do since I'm banned from the forum (naughtiness, you know.) But, please look down at my post, Please Read, for details on a contest offering real money. Top prize is $100 with 9 lesser prizes. Would love to see you participate. Maybe your presence might encourage the recalcitrant and hiding MSS. Bet you've got some contenders all set to go. JCH	2010-01-01 15:27:04
Whitewashed	Mary J Coffman	"my heart learns by rote"...capturing the tone of this poem in a line of bittersweet depth. I would think more a white-out than whitewash, left with such feelings of abandon, almost numbing the emotions as sun and snow might the eyes. Rich in simile and euphemism the imagery is highly unique and attention stopping. In keeping with such profound effect of this abandon (Jonah) this imagery is reflective, the primary success of this poem. Still, my dear, not the quality I have seen in other of your work. But then that is understandable if you are still in remorse and perhaps too close to the moment. It is so good to have you back...if just for a while. I hope everything goes well and this poem is not that fresh. JCH	2009-12-24 21:23:17
Winter Solstice	cheyenne smyth	Warmth instead of "warnth" of course. This is a leap forward in your poeming. Imagery tight and well placed rhyme scheme that is still subtle enough not to seem overly contrived. Last lines of well metered and interesting contrasts, tight enough to be those of an established poet. Elevate the prior lines to this quality and this poem will sing. JCH	2009-12-24 21:09:21
Out The Shop Door	Kenneth R. Patton	That we may often try to color our circumstance, even fog out its unsettling details is this poem's higher presentation. Were the title a bit more encompassing (like, Out Frosted Windows) it might even be allegorical. The last line is the mindfulness of how we ultimately cannot hide from reality. If you place a bit more color to the first person's circumstance and aim for a bit more subtlety, with tighter lines, meter and just a bit of assonance or rhyme you would have something to compete with Robert Frost. In a certain measure it does already. JCH	2009-12-24 20:57:30
Light of Wonder, Star of Love	Ellen K Lewis	One thing the politically correct will never understand is the way in which a devout Christian can relate to even those outside any specific religion within their own beliefs. You do this here...and in the true spirit of Christmas. The example of Christ and his selfless life are a metaphor for all mankind to place against that of the powerful and unforgiving. No better time has ever been than now that such comparisons become crucial. It is in the process of rebirth that those otherwise without mercy might reconsider and observe that being tractable is not just a virtue but quite often a power. Even we agnostics can plainly see this if we look. Your poem is an enticement to do just that. JCH	2009-12-24 20:45:47
The Club	DeniMari Z.	Well, you saved yourself with the little note, from Mister Meanie. I get, from time to time, the most awful pictures humanity can design of, "The People of Walmart". It's like the way people used to dress up to go to their annual rendition of The Rocky Horror Picture Show...only the trailer park version. And Christmas only makes it worse...taste and rubes don't mix. Some fun indeed. JCH	2009-12-17 09:40:46
Laugh a Little Lighter	Ellen K Lewis	You have a remarkable way with euphemism, i.e., "my head once crowned a gorgeous neck/but that has become a part of my chest" and your title itself. The subtle rhyme of "neck" with "chest" is my favorite kind and the lines in the next verse, "Too much pressure on my knees/I wet my pants when I sneeze" compares favorably with such great humorist poets as Don Marquis and Lord Dunsany. We age wisely or not well at all...wisdom in aging being acceptance. The tone of your pleasurable poem in its elegance. Clever and well done. JCH	2009-12-17 09:19:39
Jagged Tongues	DeniMari Z.	Uh, oh, bet he's never lived both long and well with the fair sex. Quite a come-back. Wish you had the karmic coupling to hobble him with it in chains. "Imagining you could buy yesterday on the mark down table of today." is sterling. Those things delicate to women are to be honored by men...and are by real men. They make you even more attractive. But that's the problem, instead of appreciating the differences, both genders now are competing head-on. Doesn't work, won't ever work and it's been old for 20 years now. Even put the head-job on our ladies they needed to volunteer for combat. I don't even like to see women using power equipment. Facial scars are disfiguring to women but to men they merely add flavor. Aren't the ladies of today thinking about things like that? JCH	2009-12-03 14:30:25
C East 1975	Nancy Ann Hemsworth	Many years ago, in a lit course on Dryden, my prof was a self-appointed ass, Arthur T. Sherbo, whose sole professional distinction was being an authority on Christopher Smart (big deal.) Sherbo taught a course on methodology all doctoral candidates had to take. At this bottleneck to their obtaining a meal ticket lay an axe in his propensity to give grad students Ds when no other prof would EVER give any grad student less than a C. His lectures would often wander far off even outside his field of expertise and that's where I would "stick it in his lovely behind." Once he made an unfavorable comparison between John Gay's Beggar's Opera and Bertholdt Brecht's, Three Penny Opera. I made the crack, "well, at least Gay never wrote anything comparable with Brecht's, Three Penny Novel. Sherbo took the bait and declared that it was the Three Penny Opera Brecht wrote, not a Three Penny Novel. To which I replied, "He first wrote the novel and adapted the opera from it". Sherbo protested and I offered to bring the novel to the next lecture. Which I did and he wanted to borrow it. I came early for the next lecture and put a poem I had written in staunch iambic pentameter on his chalk board. Two of the lines: "In this land there is a muse/whose only use is to deliberate his views." Sherbo came in late, as he was want to do, read it, commented, "not bad", and erased it. Nonplussed. Winning a little mite of respect, I hate to say. Nancy, many things have become far more important to poetry than form, most of all powerful image building. I say this because a poem of intensity such as yours here, is reduced in power by the obvious weakness of strict form, contrivance. And what a powerful poem this could be! with just a little less of it. Now if you want a formal critique of this I will give it to you, but I had much rather see you rewrite it with less emphasis on form at the expense of imagery. JCH	2009-12-03 07:34:53
If They Could Only See - Edited	DeniMari Z.	Look at the indefinite quality (all poetry should have) you've obtained by removing articles. The next thing I want you to work on is to elevate purpose in your work by reaching out for more universality in the form of sparking relevance to others. Aim towards meanings that tie in with what is innate to mankind. Had you polished off this poem by reaching out that way it would have been more powerful in effect. I realize this is a big order but it's what most poets today lack...and not just online. Think of it this way, assonance is more than sound quality, it is a chord struck when your reader identifies with you. The more you effect this way, the better are you a poet. JCH	2009-12-03 06:58:50
proposition	Mark Andrew Hislop	I might prefer the reply, "compared to what?" But of course that won't satisfy anyone intruding upon you that question either. And it is an intrusion, even a preemptive strike. The line, "...when/ you use it that way,/is limited, unlike me" is perfect clarity to the situation. Were this question HONESTLY asked by anyone over-stepping enough to ask it, it would be, "can I contain you; can I chain you, with your feelings for me?" Otherwise what satisfaction can even an affirmitive response be to the asker if it had to be asked?! Oh, but my young friend, we have a song here, one that might compete with, American Woman, for infamy among a certain gender. Yes, "risible" describes best any sane reaction. Which brings me to something I've been conflicted with for a while now: Has Charlie Harper's mother actually done him more favors than otherwise, by "innoculating" him so well from the virus of feminine wiles? Oh, but I myself learned so late...pity. A brave poem and a good one. JCH	2009-11-18 10:24:51
The Coming of Rain	Nancy Ann Hemsworth	It was an interesting discovery to learn that women tended to apply more extended meanings to the sensual/sexual. Then it was another knock-around-the-block to learn there were women even more removed than men. Even without the experience of being in the "oldest profession". We only like to think there are gender lines...even in the face of so many exceptions. Sometimes we have an instinct showering upon us the person opposite our way is "within our flow". God,if we could only trust something like that... Instead, to be safe, we take what we can in passing, growing old without the respite of ever satisfying what we saw in those fifties movies. Maybe not "the end of the rainbow" but with good wine it suffices. And I hope for you too. So, "to what end"?, you still ask? For us men (for whom I am only fit to answer,) hardly economy. JCH	2009-11-16 23:15:13
New Zealand	cheyenne smyth	Cheyenne, wonderful imagery comes of your poem but it reads too much like prose. Were it just a bit more indistinct, leaving more to the imagination, like lights observe a very special quality to the eye in mist, it could become a great deal more "poetic" infusing the reader with their own unique place inside it won of personal interpretation. Try rewriting it, removing every article that's unnecessary, like Flowers blooming pleasure here and there, instead of a complete prose sentence. Find established poets you like and listen for their "poetic language". Then spend more time developing your own. Chances are, the only difference will be that "indistinctness" quality I'm suggesting. If you need any credits to repost this after a rewrite I'll be happy to give some to you. How about enough for five poems? JCH	2009-11-05 20:45:46
The Knight of Love	DeniMari Z.	The poem could be far more captivating if you didn't seem so obliged to its structure. It's theme is the constant struggle we have coming to terms with the time's laceration of otherwise enduring relationships. Complex enough on its own, such a theme does not lend itself well to rhyme and strict stanza and when you try it will simply seem audaciously contrived. Free verse, free verse, free verse. But that does not eliminate the potential for lyrical quality, internal rhyme, assonance, and doing whatever to improve the read. Then you may touch your reader where you "live". And not seem diverted by form. Very, very important. JCH	2009-11-01 08:01:12
Whittling	Dellena Rovito	I was not old enough to have seen the whittlers of my home town. By the time I was five, they had all become knife traders, gathering in the small town's center to show off new acquisitions, seldom though, actually trading any. Slight compensation, I suppose, for having no nearby Masonic lodge. All things come, in time, to be transitory, even mountains,the course of rivers, some statue of Ozymandias. The expression of novel idea, a well-written story, some grand poem...slighted now perhaps, but meant to go deep into genetic knowledge...well that may last even longer than the hills. Even something so seemingly insignificant as a carving, if unique enough, might be found millions of years later in God's Depository. The elevation of one theme to that more encompassing IS the purpose of poetry in its highest aspect and, as you can see in your effect on me, you've done quite well in succeeding here. JCH	2009-11-01 07:45:32
Pain In The Beginning & End	DeniMari Z.	Grief is not something we make sense of, with, about...it, like love is simply there, or isn't. Likewise we don't produce well with it, but reach out for others to hold our hand, give us solace, press us to believe there is more to living than to long for the past. These are such pleas, and could any of us press you close, I'm certain we would. A child you bore and lost...nothing can I imagine worse. Just don't worry about how others might feel about your dealing with it...we all know it comes to each differently. And may never completely be behind you. I wouldn't imagine it could. But we care, my dear. And hope for you better days and nights that bring newer mornings. JCH	2009-10-31 19:29:13
My Vote for September	Dellena Rovito	Thank you for your support, my dear. Actually your poem, To Withstand the Storm, along with Mark's, Ventriloquist were my favorite poems to read this month. There's an indescribable quality when things click in a certain way sometimes with a poem. You've been hitting that success a number of times lately. JCH	2009-10-24 08:20:53
My September Votes	Duane J Jackson	Reasoned choices, my friend. Yes, our ban from the forum leaves us little resort. You know,Duane, there's something essentially outrageous about censorship with regard to literary effort, ANY KIND of censorship. There aren't any children here (that I can determine,) we are not in a crowded theatre and the last person, Troy Crotch, to threaten with a weapon, is gone. And I don't think he was banned...just shamed. But I did the unthinkable, I told a syncophant slobbering over a "poem" no more poetry than a shopping list, what he is. But then, when admonished by Chris, I referred to a record of what passed for "decency" commonly on the forum instead of kissing his ass. What did you do? (Curse God in Hebrew?) JCH	2009-10-24 08:01:18
Autumn Tambourines	DeniMari Z.	You can still improve this, end with "over mysterious life". Last line, first verse, look at the difference in meter when you simply put, "shaking like a thousand tambourines". (Tambourines don't shake leaves.) First line, second verse, improve meter with "golden" instead of gold. Add to rhyme with the more perfect,"these enchanting views". See if you like these changes better. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think you were onto something grand. JCH	2009-10-23 15:23:46
Beachcombing	Mark Andrew Hislop	I have always told you, Mark, you have the gift. It's well demonstrated here in you natural ability with poetic language, virtually a genius for the euphemism. Were you and the other gifted Mark not subject of wavering into moods this could become a constant ability for both of you. Perhaps it's because you may think, both of you, you've not been "blessed" with enough English Lit courses or paraded over by academics (sterile in academia,) but NOT SO. I've been both and all it's done for me is to have given me a false sense of accomplishment. Look at all these literary journals and compare their proud offerings with our own...we've nothing to turn our heads down about. This poem is full of poetic meat. Rewrite it utilizing the magical poetic indistinctness you've acquired of late, to elevate it more beyond prose. JCH	2009-10-23 12:41:35
Ecce homo	Mark Andrew Hislop	Well, MAH, a well-placed sense of humor I might not have given you credit...before this. "in situ", really cool.For a poem of this variety, form and structure matter...in a dynamic way...qualifying it poetically and not so easily dismissed as unbridled frivolity. Of course, your best lines are, "poet and poem are one, you judge both/or what's the meaning of this bloody oath?" (I would extract "bloody" and replace it since it's a bit Aussie and we want to preserve the universality of broad implications against prejudice like..."well, you know how those Aussies are..." Now you have me trying to enter into the jest. Thus, it has to be successful, or I'll lose my robes. I've already lost my gavel. JCH	2009-10-08 10:12:16
Twisted Rules of Life	DeniMari Z.	The times have revealed many shortcomings of those we've places trust and authority. Even, it would be save to say, betrayal has played a role. Change the phrase, "undernourished with truth"...it does not satisfy your meaning, and I would have voted the poem higher. The meaning implied is reflective... that truth is not nourishing. I know you do not mean that. Otherwise a successful poem. JCH	2009-10-04 16:19:00
The Night Sky	Mark Andrew Hislop	That in intimacy are many things more than grasping lust is beautifully appreciated by this poem. You've grown self-exploration here into connection with others, no more noble thing. The last verse has a profundity that is at once gentle as falling leaves, and then striking as shaking earth. For my own part, this poem will not go ignored. JCH	2009-10-04 16:07:09
To Withstand the Storm	Dellena Rovito	A lovely poem, my dear, full of highly significant meanings, placed in subtle manner gently upon the mind. That I agree explicitly, emphatically, is really beside the point... I would like to think, but you are stirring my bias. This "bias" makes your last line compelling to me. JCH	2009-10-03 11:31:36
Northumberland Road	Mark Andrew Hislop	In using a focal point we may do far more than stumble through the past but even regain sensual experiences had at the time. The freshness of your memories upon this trek upon "Northumberland Road" testifies well to this. The recollections though profound are not nourished by your usual gifted image building but then that might defeat somewhat the candor of "child's eye" purity. "Nothing's changed" upholds this observation. I'll give you a two-for-one since I hit the "destruct" button by mistake when I was reviewing, Arrow. It is a poem similar in aspect to Gibran's poem on the bow (Gibran is shallow in every shade however.) It is difficult to maintain quality when meaning must focus back again on common metaphor or symbol, but you do it as well as anyone. One comment on something for you to think about with a modest suggestion, you might change "crossbow" to longbow since crossbows shoot, more historically proper, bolts. JCH	2009-09-24 11:48:29
Court - Summons & Complaints	DeniMari Z.	"her humble entry pristine"...that's a new illusion for me, reminding me of the ivory doll Chinese physicians used to help a modest lady explain her malady. And this is a poem of cascading illusions. Do they, "...pleasure/streams stretched afar..."? I think so, for, as with me, they send us searching into our own cupboard of imagery and past recounting. "Cannot shine inside deserted breath" is by far the best and my favorite. Be just a little more "aiming" and your power will increase exponentially. JCH	2009-09-23 12:35:19
My August Votes	Duane J Jackson	You and I were close together on the votes this month. Happy you felt like me over, eHarmony. I respond to these votes not for credits but because I'm banned from the forum and this is an opportunity for me to be heard. MAH has suggested that the forum may be the better place to post the votes and I agree...of course excepting myself. It would be good if we didn't have to vote on responses like this, but if you don't then you can't post a poem. And of course Chris can't be bothered. Maybe there's a ceremony to reach him. A pentagram or something. Try burning a candle to Shiva for me, will you? JCH	2009-09-13 23:19:49
Votes For August	DeniMari Z.	Very flattering, my dear, and thank you for your regard for my poem. It has been brought up that the forum would be a better place for our voting records. For everyone but me, I agree, but I am still banned from there and resort to this if I'm to be heard. So I think that a good idea for the rest of you guys...I'd just like to see the tradition continue. I'm glad you included Terry's, eHarmony. Roll up your sleeves now, and don't let the profusion of poems posted by the guys crowd you. I'm looking forward to your poems. JCH	2009-09-13 23:01:34
The Flame	Mark Andrew Hislop	The concept of lingeage is, at best, a homage paid progenitors, at worst, a disguise (as you may have suggested)to hide unearned credit by resting on the laurels of the past. At present, the best and most significant example is in the American psyche to rely that all the freedoms we have have been earned by our forefathers. Without maintainance. Nothing is further from the truth. For, if the "flame" requires a vigilance to tend, it must impact upon what it symbolizes and that is light...light to see. As in the Statue of L-I-B-E-R-T-Y. Maybe you need something that imposing in Aussieland. Let me know and I'll wire the French. It's the least I can do for all the brave Aussies that have fought with us, never against us. I have known a few. (I still think you blokes should get together and throw the NSA out of your country.) Maybe we could do the same here and they would end up in Antarctica. A great manifestation of "keeping them on ice." JCH	2009-09-13 22:50:00
The tall ships	Mark Andrew Hislop	This is the most advised way of looking at nostalgia yet. For it harbors (forgive the pun)a higher reference poem by far than that most mentioned, the first kiss, the old movie theater in hometown, USA (or Aussieland.) The image of "tall ships" is grand, and hearkens to the times when splendid sailing craft owned the sea...to be paralleled of couse with the industry and commerce once had WITHIN the great nations of industry. Now compromised in every respect, like the trade sailcraft and their pure respect for the elements by a forever polluting fueled steamer or worse. Fast profits, fast Estimated Arrival Time, fast madness. And the ruins in aftermath. Right down to the bottoms of the oceans if we don't start "backtracking" to times when we were "getting it right". When it was indeed time, "to put to sea". JCH	2009-09-13 10:38:43
Two views of dna	Mark Andrew Hislop	I've only guesses about your illusion to "Samuel". You might fix that. At the times of our own exploration we become aware of the imperfections, even the laughable, in modern views of science. If we go deeper we find such over-specialization like dividing one complete pursuit of Nature's wonder into arbitrary fragment like that of "physics" and "chemistry". Your poem is an early on growth of awareness of this. And broader, that of all authority imposing on us at any one time...won of frail mortal consequence, my budding nihilist. "with hands too full/to feel it whole" is your best and superlative line/lines. With plate still far too full, the leap into conclusion is obviously unearned. As it is with all things human upon this planet. JCH	2009-09-13 10:22:58
Poetry	Mark Andrew Hislop	I had meant to be more deliberate. To give you something encompassing in scope in the way of a critique. Then I read your recent reply to my last critique. Deep uncompromising introspection not permitted the company of like minds can leave one brittle. This is, most likely, responsible for the popularity of bars or pubs. Not that any man should permit another to make an inveterate explainer out of himself either. But we come, in times of complexity, to push our centers around. Some never quite reestablish equalibrium, some even give in to depression or worse. In your reply you spoke of yourself in an unflattering manner. What you named yourself I believe to be untrue. The opposite is more likely. You are paralleling here poetic aspirations with what you perceive to be failings in life, almost like you view poetry a failed objective itself. In absolutes nothing exists, nothing acquires absolute truth, beauty, purity. Life draws its most important value as a quest to refine all these values for ourselves and others right up to our last breath. But if one draws up from the quest to gauge anything on absolutes nothing stands on its own. It is the eternal dichotomy, to obtain what is unreachable. That's why we need heaven. Resign to being a poet. Fulfill it. Realize you can do things for others you might not know how to do for yourself...until someday, someone, inspired by something you wrote, teaches you how. It's not an absolute, but it's better. For it comes from the one thing on earth that is absolute, the constant need in us all to be touched. Take your eyes off what you would make perfect and become engulfed in process, hoping you never end some marble god on some Olympian plateau decorated in thin gleaming gilt. Never losing the senses it takes to detect even the unsavory secretions of life. Now go out and mud wrestle fat women while downing beer as fast as you can. JCH	2009-09-09 00:16:04
Poem Title	Poet Name	Critique Given by James C. Horak	Critique Date

Displaying Critiques 101 to 150 out of 460 Total Critiques.
Click one of the following to display the: First 50 ... Next 50 ... Previous 50 ... Last 50 Critiques.

If you would like to view all of James C. Horak's Poetry just Click Here.

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!