Obviously, all of this is objective and my opinion; the fact that I need to state this blatantly is indicative of how bloody sensitive some people can be. Then again, I don't think that many people will comment on this, so meh.
Here goes.
THE SHITTY:
-For the most part, I really don't like poetry written by people around my age.
(exceptions: valor, aanika, Puking Faerie Dust
)It often features poorly-used punctuation, too much punctuation, every-line-is-capitalized-for-no-apparent-reason line breaks, shitty spelling, and wrist-slitting clichés like:
e.g. "I hate myself so much
For loving you,
And for this I cry
Red tears
The same red as blood"
Inevitably, people my age (and people not my age) make these kind of mistakes as well, which I will classify as "Common Zits in Poetry".
Common Zits In Poetry as follows:
1] Mixing up 'its' and 'it's'
Okay, I can forgive you if you use the wrong form of 'its'/'it's' maybe one time, or in a casual message...
but do this in your poems multiple times
and I will feel testy.
Make that EXTREMELY testy.
it's=it is
If you can remember that and you can speak English relatively well,
that shouldn't be bloody hard to remember.
Hell, it should be ingrained in your DNA with that nitrogenous base and the other 2 components of DNA I can't remember from last year's science class. (Was it sugar and phosphate? Can somebody nerdy help me with this one???)
2]Mixing up 'your' and 'you're'.
Oh COME ON!
you're=you are
Like 'it's', if you can remember this one,
it should be EASY.
Seriously, I see antediluvians (Meg, ever since you have taught me this damn word, I use it whenever possible like a jackass
) and adults making the same mistakes. -Imagery that doesn't make any sense.
I'm not talking about poetry that leaves you to your interpretation, but poetry that uses TOO MUCH IMAGERY.
I used to be guilty of this.
Anyways, imagery that doesn't make any sense can look something like this.
e.g. "lemon storm shakes
freckled windows;
fruit's storm
scares the sunrise in my hair
until five o'clock shadow
crawls like music spiders
down passive-aggressive throat
so full of lime-green kiwis
and wrinkled love's legacy"
Verdict: ¿Qué diablos paso?!!!
What the FUCK!
Abusing possessive forms.
I'm not talking about possessive forms like "Jessica's favorite fountain drink is half iced tea and half Coke". <==incidentally, that is true.
The kind of possessive forms I hate look more like this:
"anger's piano quartet"
"music's thunderous pizza"
Verdict: Just, no.
-Being overly pretentious with "smart" words or words from other languages.
I love a lot of words.
Admittedly, some of the words I do like are pretentious or happen to be in another language (I really like German and Spanish words).
I'm not saying that you should never use a "smart" word or refrain from using a word just because you don't think anyone will understand it (hell, a shitload of people didn't/don't know what the hell 'schadenfreude' was).
But seriously...
if every line is 20 syllables worth of pretentiousness,
there's something ugly going on.
e.g. "sanguine shackles shellac schadenfreude to spherical sodomy"
Simultaneously, that was also an example of poor alliteration.
Words from other languages can be seriously kick-ass,
but going too far is easy.
Translations are nice.
Verdict: You're not writing an essay or a thesaurus; ergo, don't go nuts with the "smart" words or words from other languages.
*
THE FRAGRANT:
Go to my 'favorites' list.
Enough said.
Jessica
Adding your comment:
and 
... I suppose I'd better write a poem about "music's thunderous pizza" too, and dedicate it to you 
and '-For the most part, I really don't like poetry written by people around my age.'
I'm on your favorites list.
does that make me guilty of being pretentious? 
LoL)
The world is doomed D:
you crazy woman 
