My daughter is not as naive as I thought

[gabosaurus]

I have been under the false impression that my 14 year old daughter cared little about politics and paid little attention to domestic and global affairs. The whole "politicians are all crooks" thing.

Then my husband found this paper in her backpack, which she left in the back of his car. It was apparently an assignment for her literature class. The instructor left a comment that says "you need to turn down your invective a bit."
And to think I used to get the same comments about my assignments.


The stupid people, they are everywhere here
They would hate me if I happened to be queer
Their noses would bend if my friends were urban
Their guns would come out if I wore a turban
Idiots all, their plague surrounds us
They scream, they yell, they raise a fuss
You're different from us, we don't like you at all!
Unless you conform, our whole country will fall!
I want clear blue skies, you prefer a large dump
Why vote for reason when you have Donald Trump?
Who needs gorgeous trees under skies that are sunny
Let's just turn our heads while we pocket our money
But the game is not over, don't think you have won
We refuse to cower at the point of your gun
Just wait til we have the vote in our hand
We'll bury you and save our land

Gabs , its great that she writes poetry and even it being political in nature. IN FACT THAT POEM IS QUITE GOOD.
However, this pushes right up to the edge in this creative writing forum as politics and debate in that genre is
off limits here.
I will allow it this time but do try to post less political natured poems she writes in the future please.
And tell her to title her poems..... titles are very important.. as well as signing by the author/poetess...--Tyr

[jimnyc]

I have cleaned up this thread and moved all of the fighting posts to - http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthre...224-Censorship

I will reserve comment on this post. I'll take my comment to the link above.

[gabosaurus]

Gabs , its great that she writes poetry and even it being political in nature. IN FACT THAT POEM IS QUITE GOOD.
However, this pushes right up to the edge in this creative writing forum as politics and debate in that genre is
off limits here.
I will allow it this time but do try to post less political natured poems she writes in the future please.
And tell her to title her poems..... titles are very important.. as well as signing by the author/poetess...--Tyr

Thank you, Tyr. I didn't realize that it would be controversial. It was simply verse to me. I will adhere to your guidelines more strictly in the future.
My daughter is in an AP Literature class and the teacher is doing a good job of pushing the students to venture outside their comfort zones. My daughter had never written much poetry before, so the instructor has been working on it with her.
I am quite flattered that an outstanding poet as yourself would compliment her. She is still learning about structure, so I am sure she hasn't learned about titles and such yet.

[revelarts]

Even if i don't agree with her political views, I can appreciate the effort she took to poetically frame the commentary as well as she did.
it's not easy and she did a very nice job.

and personally i have no problem with her invective.

Personally i would not advise her to simply turn it down.
But for her to understand that she CAN turn it up or down and that at various levels it will get different reactions.
That the tone itself is part of the voice and certain issues are far more sensitive than others and even a mild tone can be taken as an attack.

And I'm no poety buff myself but I thought one of the points of poetry was to express the POETS feelings of love, hate, angst, outrage frustration, loneliness, hope etc.. Not just to reach a general audience in a pleasant non offensive way.

If this were a journalism piece or historical writing or something then the invective would be inappropriate, but poetry?
I don't understand the motives behind the teacher's comment or the narrowing of the poetic range to rule out politics.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Even if i don't agree with her political views, I can appreciate the effort she took to poetically frame the commentary as well as she did.
it's not easy and she did a very nice job.

and personally i have no problem with her invective.

Personally i would not advise her to simply turn it down.
But for her to understand that she CAN turn it up or down and that at various levels it will get different reactions.
That the tone itself is part of the voice and certain issues are far more sensitive than others and even a mild tone can be taken as an attack.

And I'm no poetry buff myself but I thought one of the points of poetry was to express the POETS feelings of love, hate, angst, outrage frustration, loneliness, hope etc.. Not just to reach a general audience in a pleasant non offensive way.

If this were a journalism piece or historical writing or something then the invective would be inappropriate, but poetry?
I don't understand the motives behind the teacher's comment or the narrowing of the poetic range to rule out politics.

And I'm no poetry buff myself but I thought one of the points of poetry was to express the POETS feelings of love, hate, angst, outrage frustration, loneliness, hope etc.. Not just to reach a general audience in a pleasant non offensive way.

True poetry is about expressing feelings,desires, hopes, wishes, imagination, loves , hates , heart message, soul and /or praise, thanks complaints and mankind's follies, goals, loves, lives, dreams etc..
And as a general rule tis to be done in a positive way.
Yet poetry has always also been about rebellion from the norm,status quo and powers that be too.
For such almost always fights the revelations that poetry brings and the very freedoms it lives and expresses
so adamantly and so well!
In that knowledge, I wanted the poem to stay even though it was a bit too political for the restrictions set for this forum.
And has now been decided by admin here (not by me), the tenants of the previous positives I cited outweigh the objections to and small eruption that resulted upon its first viewings here.
Thus the positives won out in this case.
Personal debates about its authenticity, purpose etc can be and or now relegated to the cage.

The realism in the poem is that it speaks of the great political divide we now have by delving into the acceptance of propaganda over that of truth. Always a grave danger and almost always the case when government rules and seeks to further restrict the people(We the People)...--Tyr

If this were a journalism piece or historical writing or something then the invective would be inappropriate, but poetry?
I don't understand the motives behind the teacher's comment or the narrowing of the poetic range to rule out politics.

Ahh, restrictions of free speech can be argued in every case under the sun my friend.
To limit this to creative writing,discussion of and commenting on- was the goal set by admin -to keep the political and personal fighting out. Thus not have another cage here methinks.

Thats my take on it, as I set none of the rules/restrictions.
Admin here may feel differently and/or add more splaining etc. ..
I just happen to be the monkey holding the keys in this room and writing a bit while doing so Rev. -Tyr