Poetry Trolls

Trolls abound on the Internet,

Creeping out of the dark, like moles.

The ones who lurk on poetry sites

Are better known as poetry trolls.

 

Poetry trolls attack other poets

With their combative analyses.

Their belligerent behavior

Borders on what might be a disease.

They often feel compelled to respond,

As though they have to give their two cents.

The pat they give themselves on the back

Must be a form of recompense.

 

Offering nonconstructive comments

Is one of their central attributes.

They think they're being insightful, but

Instead, they come off sounding like brutes.

 

Nasty, vicious, they seem to thrive

On looking for folks to demean or attack.

It's almost as though these people are trying

To compensate for something they lack.

 

Are their lives so miserable,

Or are they so deeply insecure

That showing restraint in commenting

Is more than these poor souls can endure?

 

In dealing with these crazy people,

Frankly, you simply cannot go wrong

If you ignore their comments and dump them

Into the trash can where they belong.

 

-by Bob B (1-19-22)

Reviews

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

keep speaking truth because it's like bug spray to insects to them. They can't handle it. We've had to deal, with quite a few on this site, and lost a few good writers who have left than rather put up with the childish antics of these trolls. Don't let them silence you and your art.

[Coyote Poetry]

I agree Bob.
"In dealing with these crazy people,
Frankly, you simply cannot go wrong
If you ignore their comments and dump them
Into the trash can where they belong."
The above lines. Great advice we must do. Thank you my friend for sharing your wise words.
Coyote

[JayG]

The ones who lurk on poetry sites
Are better known as poetry trolls.
- - - - - - - - -

Why let it bother you? You can always point out that your poems get more reviews than the troll. After all, no matter how well you write, someone will blow a raspberry.

And if that’s not true…if you’re not getting the appreciation you hoped for, there must be lots of sites where people are hoping to find partisan political trumpets blaring.

[Bob B]

Exactly. Another fine option. The trumpets will sound....

[JayG]

And the number of people who respond will indicate how well you did it That's fair.

[Bob B]

Well, not really. I don’t base the worth of anything based on the number of hits or likes it gets.

[JayG]

You miss the most critical point: You are, or should be, writing for your customer, your reader. But you're writing screeds that don't even get a "right on," from your own party or viewpoint. If you don't see that as negative feedback you're deluding yourself.

Why? Because you make your point... You drive your point home... You hammer your point into the dirt... You smash your point into smithereens... And then, you start over, saying the same thing to the same people, in yet another post. That matters, because poetry involves the reader, it doesn't lecture or proselytize them, as you do in each one.

The "worth" of any piece of writing is in the reader's response, not how much the author likes it.

You're not going to change the mind of Trumpsters or antivaxers. They won't listen, because with them it's a religion, to be accepted without question.

And those who subscribe to your views already know what you're saying, and they ignore it because it has no emotional component for them, only "This is MY viewpoint." And of course, those not from USA, who number as many or more your target audience, see your work as spam.

Go take a look at the excerpt to Stephen Fry's, The Ode Less Traveled, on Amazon, to see how much you're missing so far as poems. There are other forms than four line stanzas of ABCB rhyme schemes, four feet per line, with no attention paid to trochaic or iambic line openings. A Lot more

[Bob B]

I'll tell you what: YOU write YOUR poems your way and I will write MY poems my way.

[JayG]

As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but not make them drink.