Colin F. Jones

CRITICISM

I am sensitive to criticism,
That my work does not approve,
But I suffer it in silence,
Lest I be by anger moved.

Though it took so much to write it,
That in one statement it is denied,
I remember I was twenty,
Before I knew that critics lied.

Though some prefer the critic,
To those who write the verse,
I feel so sorry for the critic,
Because what he writes is worse.

Because nothing is creative,
Not one word is his own,
It is another’s thoughts he uses,
To degrade or condone.

He borrows from your story,
All the elements of his claim,
And from your finest efforts,
forges his counterfeit name.

Submitted for the June 2007 IWVPA Club Theme Project, “Criticism”