Sreeja

seven_hues

Sreeja puts a lot of faith in the power of metaphors. The metaphors have a strong impact and are typically left to speak for themselves rather than intertwining with other to created extended allegories. The symbolic language within play, pause, and replay is fascinating in its repetition and at the same time purposeful. There is a meta narrative being constructed that continues to inspire me and it has reminded me of the power of repetition and why it's so important to avoid that casual recursion.

My favorite piece is well paced, confessional, and delves into the self referential which I typically do not like. Another favorite is "half-art half-accident" which has some gorgeous word choice.

excerpt from "chasing the shadows" in play, pause, and replay

Roses between my thighs, wilted and torn

under the weight of every lie I swallowed,

every night I let someone else's hands

tell me I'm worth something.

The thorns bury deep and draw blood,

leave marks that fade too slow;

https://www.wattpad.com/1476371362-play-pause-replay-chasing-the-shadows

Patrick - stkolbe

There's an attention to assonance and rhythm that beyond conventional lyrics within Patrick's work. I really appreciate how the truth of a line might foster the flow of adjectives like lines of prose. My favorite work has a level of narrative that doesn't typically work in poetry, as it feels distant. However I felt like the layered metaphor and brevity let the work speak with impact.

excerpt from "the white grass" in Magpies

My heart hangs in a locket,

A faded photograph of her,

Noosed around my neck,

Love rifles through my ribs,

As I stop for my life.

My ankle hits a face, damp with scarlet.

Teeth greet the dirt.

https://www.wattpad.com/1446251066-magpies-the-white-grass

Ajay

Ajay-Kumar

Ajay is a poet of skilled variation who favors a free verse style. I think one of the reasons it's always hard to engage with free verse, is that I don't always understand why a poem isn't a blog. Ajay's poems keep a personal intimacy while not letting go of the artifice that is poetic language. Theming is always strong and frequently direct with clever word choice adding layers of meaning that aren't oppressive to the ignorant.

My favorite piece "xoxo" embraces analogies with unapologetic honesty. The metaphor or simile feels less like a flourish than a stark description of reality, that fits the description. While the emotions are not openly expressed, they are present and foreboding. The lack of overt emotionality also works with the piece as a whole.

excerpt from "xoxo" in last ~ poetry

the window cuts up the sky like my mother cut up

the cake my sister made for me on my birthday:

chocolate truffle, clapped around, sung over.

we don't talk anymore except in the ritual of language.

family after a point, is just a generic habit

but people wear habits as robes feel holy.

https://www.wattpad.com/1472881160-last-%7E-poetry-xoxo

Emily - sugaryspit

Surrealism is always a form of art that I struggle to interact with. The form, the flow, and even the impact can take center stage as function wobbles. Emily has an almost deliberately cryptic approach to poetry that lends a psychedelic quality to the piece as a whole. The work stays with me and I'm not always sure that I even enjoy it, but it is certainly thought provoking and for that I am grateful.

excerpt from "Siren Song" in spacejunk

Her brain buzzes with the tender hum of death,
a forgotten tide of, both, memories and regrets efflorescing into an
aquarium of corpses;
A melancholic mixture of remorse and euphoria swim through the
streams of indigo veins.

https://www.wattpad.com/1420928850-spacejunk-siren-song

𝑷 𝒆 𝒂 𝒓 𝒍

preciouspearl20

Pearl is always delivering poems with evocative imagery and a language that seems to understand the connotations in a way that supersedes their direct meaning. There's a hard to identify mystique in her work that doesn't always resonate with me, but when it hits, it hard.

I've had such a long complicated relationship with "Blue: Amour oublié" that I can't not talk about it. The piece isn't excessively long, but the shift of metaphors and transition of images make it hard to balance all the ideas in my mind. I love the mouthfeel of the poem, for lack of a better expression. It is a pleasure to read aloud. In trying to analyze it, I singled out the symbolic representations using her words:

winter air on bones
pale face on pages of blue
flying through leafless trees
dreams of home dampened by rain
lost in the sea-lost in your eyes
white mist in misplaced home
embrace in coat and drive and sigh
stealing silent hours under lightning skies
gold rosemary flame and restless foam
blue night gone and cameo roles
the wetness of burned, buried, and faded stains.

https://www.wattpad.com/1453774547-traveller%27s-heart-blue-amour-oubli%C3%A9

Yet I think my favorite is "The half shut door" which has such a powerful connective narrative and a lingering metaphor that grows as the piece develops.

excerpt from "The half shut door" in Traveller's heart

I was just a mere flesh, I'm still with

my bones and cracks, watching the darkness

kissing the sound of rain, I almost--

really tried so hard to open my eyes for once.

https://www.wattpad.com/1489027984-traveller%27s-heart-the-half-shut-door

E.S. - eternal_solace

excerpt from "Fire" in Silence in the Walls

permanency
is the universe
sniggering at
our puny
clocks

and why set it on fire
when you can see
the stars hug
planets in a comically
large fashion,
a version of
eating oranges

slice by slice-

https://www.wattpad.com/1473346481-silence-in-the-walls-fire

The Mad Poet Gold

TheMadPoetGold

excerpt from "Aftersmoke" in The Book of Fantastical Confusion

The scars that remain

Will forever be the same

And tomorrow you might believe

The branches of your life

Never spread past the seed,

Planted shallow in the bottomless snow.

https://www.wattpad.com/1466113864-the-book-of-fantastical-confusion-aftersmoke

meskeleton - meskeleton_07

Rhyming couplets and intense musings on the nature of existence both play a strong role in her poems. What person poems appear have a layer of mystery and a presentation like a skittish smile or a hidden tear. There is a great depth of thought within her works and it feels architectural, building to a longed for truth.

excerpt from "clone" in Crossroads of Destiny

But what's inside me, I know
so what's inside them, I know

This place is one where we belong,
yet all wish, "now, let me go"

https://www.wattpad.com/1496827441-crossroads-of-destiny-clone

Julia Warren - TheJuliaWarren

Julia uses a lot of direct language while implying a lot of depth. The lyrical style is welcome and puts more weight on rhythm than rhyme schemes, dropping patterns to keep meaning. 

excerpt from "Questions" in Falling Leaves

I need to know, if he lets you take control

If during the darkest, quietest nights,

he moans your name into your mouth,

and he allows himself to crawl for you,

to die for you a hundred times.

https://www.wattpad.com/1476287332-falling-leaves-questions

melodyy_ross

Melody expresses her art with vulnerable honesty. There's a raw exposure to so much of her work while favoring naturalistic language. Recently, she's been pushing her figurative language and using more metaphors and it's interesting to see how the two styles are clashing and I hope they will come together in the future.

excerpt from "30." in you are a fantasy

you are alone in the middle
of endless ocean
just listen to your breath
to your heartbeat
never touch that cigarette
never drink from that bottle

https://www.wattpad.com/1504777603-you-are-just-a-fantasy-30

Snow

Snowball0909

excerpt from "Stay" in Hymns From The Heart

I used to stand tall,
But now I sink,
a stranger in my own skin.

Stay,
Be who you were.
I need you
I want you back.

https://www.wattpad.com/1500191470-hymns-from-the-heart-stay