I Shall Not Share

Dear Baldwin,
It's really a charming poem. It's full of images that touch the heart. I love it. It's one of the best l've ever read. J Z

"Dear Baldwin,
It's really a charming poem. It's full of images that touch the heart. I love it. It's one of the best l've ever read. "

But how can it be?  According to you, I'm not a "real poet" and therefore one who is incapable of producing a poem, let alone a charming  one.  

This one is something else. I hope you will stick to this lovely way of writing to produce what is really charming.

Thank you.  But I do not see  how this is set out any differently from the way I have set out any other of my submissions, save, perhaps, for some of my  intentionally satirical pieces.

I wonder if you would do me the kindness of pointing out a few examples of my non-satirical submissions that lack the qualities you see in this one.

1- l like its subject, the music that touches you very deeply.
2- l like the images and the way you describe this music.
3- l like the way you describe what happens to you when you hear this music.
4- l like your saying that you will keep it to yourself as you say in the title.

Thank you.  But I did not ask you what you liked about the piece.  I asked you to name a number of my previous submissions that are not set out , as you have claimed they aren't,  in the way that this piece is set out.  
 
How and why does, say, this submission of mine:  
 
https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/401053-belly-dancer/  

or this one:

 https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/400948-we-toured-the-autumned-cotswold-lanes/

lack the qualities you say "I Shall Not Share" possesses?

I have no time to look at your previous poems and criticize them to show you what l didn't like about each of them. However, l can say in general:
1- l didn't like their themes.
2- l didn't like the way you set them.
3- l didn't like their images.
4- l didn't like the words used in them. They sounded void of real feelings.

Why should anyone take the fact that you didn't like the things you mentioned as an indication, let alone proof,  that what I wrote in things you didn't look at (or even things you did) was poorly written, lacked charm, and was not evocative poetry?

I read some of your poetry. Those l liked l gave you my real opinion about them. This is not the first time l tell you that l liked a poem of yours. But of course we should read well before we criticise, and we shouldn't involve our grudges in what we criticize, as sometimes both of us did in our criticism. Perhaps we did that as a reaction of provocative criticism we had received.

But of course we should read well before we criticise [sic], and we shouldn't involve our grudges in what we criticize, as sometimes both of us did in our criticism. Perhaps we did that as a reaction of provocative criticism we had received"

This seems abundantly clear in your responses to my criticisms -- which means that no one should take what you have said seriously since it was out of spite.

But you have yet to show that anything I've said about the way you write is born of grudges, let alone that even if it was, that what I said was invalid.

In any case,  nothing in what you said above responds directly to my question of why anyone should regard what you dislike as  valid criteria for determining that I write poorly.  

It is considered valid according to my reading , experience and taste about good poetry, which is not little.

"It is considered valid according to my reading , experience [sic ,] and taste about good poetry, which is not little."

So you keep saying.

But can one's taste about good poetry be "not little"?