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Is my poetry bad or decent? Should i continue at it?

Neither of these are complete and were written in around 3 minutes so I know they may not be great.

*The maze*
The maze
Life it is a maze
you may wander through
it’s twists and turns
hidden from our view

Be certain
you select the right path
but when stagnant
do not presume it is the end
as it may be
just the start

As we waltz through
this bittersweet game
the ticking timer of life
chimes relentlessly as we wonder
if it is all in vain

How long the maze
will have us in it’s grasp
we do not know
seemingly never ending
pleasures and pains
upon us it bestows

Come rain or shine
We are all locked within it’s gates
The certainty of morbidity
Our only possible escape

Happiness it is ever so elusive
We search between us
For a love
That we yearn to be exclusive

*A fool*
a do gooder in this world
is a fool
for to think of others
would make one an idiot
in a land so cruel

i wish i had
a heart made of stone
society falling to pieces
individuals willing to cheat, backstab and kill
in a ploy for the throne

There’s no one to trust
The ones who appear
to have good intentions
unveiled as the most corrupt

Reply 1

NameUserer

Some interesting ideas here, but you might want to redraft them a little.

Firstly, you're using 'it's' instead of 'its' (although the rest of the grammar seems fine). Secondly, you're not sticking to any kind of structure. Reading 'The Maze' for the first time, I assumed it was free verse but it's clearly meant to rhyme. Your stanzas vary from 4-6 lines and there's no real logic to their length. You set up a rhyming scheme (ABCB) in the first stanza but you don't follow it for the rest of the poem. It doesn't seem intentional and it makes the poem feel a little confused, but it'd be easily fixed. Also, consider your capitalisation. It's not consistent in either poem - 'A Fool' starts in lower case then progresses to normal capitalisation. Again, easily fixed.

Really like the 'waltz' stanza though. You've got some great imagery and both of these poems could work very well.

Reply 2

michaelhw

I can tell you that nobody who ever wrote poetry did it to become rich. Even walcott and heaney had extra jobs. The question then becomes, does it give you any pleasure to write this poetry?
Some people, average painters, spend a lot of time painting apples, sunset elks and weeping children. When they are done they proudly display it in their living rooms, not because they think they are Da Vinci, but because they felt that they mastered something new. If somebody then shows an interest...fine.
Neither Kafka, Lovecraft or Van Gogh imagined the fame they got after death. Yet, they kept at it. None of us are at that level, but at least it shows that even very capable artists were motivated by something else.