Nicki's Critique of Holden's Poem

I took this poem very literally, so to me, Holden’s poem is about a child who doesn’t want to go to sleep, because if he or she does, they’re afraid someone won’t be there to wake them up. They trust that someone will be there to wake them, even though they fall asleep with no one there.

Personally, I found this poem to be a little confusing the first few times I read it, but I liked it overall. I liked the kind of story arc with the poem; he started at the beginning of the evening, and progressed until the character fell asleep. I think he could’ve set the scene a little better, where exactly is the character? I was confused by the line; “You will not take cover onto yourself, because you think that cannot happen”, I think that it could’ve been defined a bit better. I like that the poem ended on kind of a cliffhanger, you don’t know if the person is going to be woken up by someone else, or wake up at all. I think Holden could’ve elaborated a little more on why there was no one home, it’s mentioned that the character thinks that there’s someone there, but there’s not, so that kind of leads into this other thought that maybe the character only wishes that someone will be there to wake them up. Perhaps they’re living on their own now and miss the feeling of having their father wake them up, and they’re afraid that without someone there, they won’t wake up at all. I hope that this makes sense! Good job!

Critique of Taji's Poem "Museless"

Taji’s poem is about writers’ block. It’s short, sweet, and to the point.

I like how you reflects on how the inspiration used to come to you. The poem is very well written. I like that you weren’t afraid to use words like “opus” and “nebulous”, though if the reader didn’t really understand what the words meant, he or she wouldn’t really understand the last sentence of the poem. What is the nine? I think you could write a bit more about the “tales” you used to write, or what your major inspiration was. I think you could’ve added a little more imagery, but overall the poem is very well done!