TheGiftofAnonymity• Show poetry

My name is not really John, but that is what I would like you to call me.

I am a member of multiple poetry websites. I've been writing for a while. I have come to Allpoetry in search of a fresh, new horizon... A vast majority of poets who do not know me at all. (A small minority of which I am hoping will pretend not to recognize me under my new penname!) Why? I sometimes worry that people comment on my posts:

a. dishonestly (basically being nice to me when my writing's kinda crappy instead of really criticizing my poems)

or

b. honestly, but for the wrong reasons. (Basically being over-nice to me when I write something halfway decent because of who I am, and their predisposition to liking my poetry.)

You might agree with a majority of the poems I post here, or you may emphatically disagree with everything I stand for. Independently of that, you might want to praise the poetic quality of a particular poem I wrote, while criticising another. Sometimes these two factors blend awkwardly. Sometimes you could be in agreeance with everything I have to say, and yet the way I wrote it is just cheesy in your mind. Sometimes you could see my point of view as the most idiotic ever, and yet admire the way I put it down on paper.

In all of these situations (and others potentially unforseen) I invite you all to take advantage of my anonymity and just be totally honest in your critiques. I am a big boy. I have been around the block. I can handle both good and bad critiques, even a mixture of both. Hit me with the truth and do not think twice about it. In return, I promise you the same courtesy. (For better or worse...)