Any writer’s group, pick one.

First there was the one who liked whatever you wrote
He praised each and every thing that he read
His commentary was positive, and often with a quote
But you could never quite believe what he said.

Then there was the romantic, who only looked at love
When making any sort of critical decision,
Her thoughts were on philosophy, and all things thereof
And she was against any sort of revision.

Another member of the group was nasty and bitter,
Vitriol was his major stock in trade.
Everyone he chased off he then reviled as a quitter
Every critique had edges sharper than a blade.

There was the earth mother; nurturing, positive and wise
Who made certain every work got a fair shake.
She did her best to carefully and honestly apprise,
And was gracious when pointing out a mistake.

The blue collar heart throb was also a member,
Wrote from the hip and usually scored,
He could fan a flame from the tiniest ember,
No matter what he wrote, nobody was bored.

There was also a timid soul, careful and shy,
Who never quite believed in her writing.
She would always take direction, always try,
But ran away at the first sign of fighting.

We had a vulgarian, every crowd has one at least
Whose crudity both shocked and amused,
His profanity and lewd suggestion never ceased
But his humor sometimes excused.

Then there was the critic, who neither wrote nor created
Instead he spent all of his efforts dissecting
He cared not a whit that he was universally hated
He preferred pointing out errors and correcting.

And we had a bully, let us never forget
A tough guy who pushed folks around
He was never happy unless someone was upset,
Unless someone was whipped and beaten down.

So why did we come to this writing group
Where not everyone was worth being heard?
Because we were more than just the members of our troop
We were dedicated to polishing the written word.

We were friends, and acquaintances, and family too
We listened and we bitched and complained.
We were all a part of the big writers zoo
We are writers, and we all entertained.

24
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Comments (15)
  • Cyra Miles on Dec 4, 2008

    nice article.. i like the charateristic of nature mother though I belong to the timid soul..:)

  • Michele Cameron Drew on Dec 4, 2008

    A very nice write, Reilly. I could swear that I have known most of these people at one point or another. :)

    -M

  • Cynthia Bartlett on Aug 23, 2009

    Cool!

  • Val Mills on Dec 20, 2009

    Thank goodness not all of these are in my writing group.

  • Ken David on May 27, 2010

    Good Job! Great read.

  • Gay on Nov 8, 2011

    Chris, I know this group and belonged to one like it for about ten years. The poets eventually split off, came up with something like a manifesto, rarely hurt, mostly supported, always remembered, and continuously challenged. They were years I learned and improved. I consider them all my friends still although we’ve all grown older and life has restricted us, there are good memories and genuine respect for one another’s work.

    Thanks for this. I need to send some emails ;-)

  • brian miller on Nov 8, 2011

    ha nice….writers groups can be very scary spaces…egos come out and it can get ugly…when you have commited people that are really intersting in helping it can be a beautiful thing…

  • Bajanpoet on Nov 8, 2011

    LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Pat Hatt on Nov 8, 2011

    Great verse and yeah writers groups tend to scare me for the most part, too many ego’s there seem to be.

  • Natasha on Nov 8, 2011

    Loved this! And so happy you joined us…(bubbled the chunky monkey in the rose colored glasses!) The things we do to share our words eh? All the time and effort put into to working up the nerve…you have painted a wonderful example of not just a writers group…but the planet on a whole!

  • Chris G. on Nov 8, 2011

    The community of writers…it is a wondrous thing to find so many devoted to the beauty of language, and the craft of the written word. Had a few good writers groups myself, but there is always worry of the bad ones, the fear of finding un-likeminded people, there only to hear themselves speak or to destroy others attempts to do so. Still, this work as a whole took me back to college, where so many of those blossomed.

  • Yousei Hime on Nov 8, 2011

    I’m with Chris, too much like college. I’m in one now, and though there are still some similarities, the maturity level is higher. Sooooo grateful for that, and for finding dVerse.

  • Window lad on Nov 9, 2011

    ..ha, you are very keen with your observations my friend.. i must agree with all as i have encountered many of ‘em here in the blogosphere… i suspect i belong to the ————- group… hehe.. i had a lot of fun reading here, thanks!

    Good day!

    ~kelvin

  • Charles Elliott/Beautyseer on Nov 9, 2011

    Put me down as one of them nasty critics this time. I would like to have been shown these characters, not merely told of them. A bit of physical description, a line or fragment of dialogue would have really sold me this poem. I think you are onto something, just want to see and hear these ’shoppers.

    As Billy Collins did in this poem, “Workshop”: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176048

  • Taylor on Jan 27, 2012

    amazing, appreciated your input,

    Smiles.

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