Having lived with this rewrite for a little while now, I believe I can answer that question. It’s not good poetry.

Poetry is about using imagery to convey an idea or a feeling. The imagery I selected for this poem for the most part sounded cool to me on a superificial level. If someone asked me why I began the poem with the phrase “In the bosom of fire,” I don’t think I could answer that question. This is, therefore, a mostly poorly thought-out and ineptly written poem.

Still, there is one gem in here. The second-to-last stanza is just about perfect — and I can build something around that. That’s enough to have made this piece worthwhile for me.

I’m not beating myself up (since some of you worry about that). But I now recognize how high the bar is set. Reaching it will be a challenge. I relish the thought of tackling it.

First, huge commendations for sharing that. Maybe five people have ever seen my poetry, mostly because I put some REALLY personal revelatory stuff in there.

Poetry’s HARD. I worked on one for a month straight, and still wasn’t satisfied.

I can tell you I like it, but I can’t tell you if it’s good poetry or not.