*Magnify*
SPONSORED LINKS
Printed from https://writing.com/main/profile/reviews/luminementis/sort_by/r.review_creation_time DESC/page/46
Review Requests: ON
2,325 Public Reviews Given
2,325 Total Reviews Given
Review Style
I try to be honest and positive. My Christian faith is an important background factor. I hate rating low but have a system that determines how I grade.
 
STATIC
My Philosophy of Rating and Reviewing  (E)
How do I assess people's work when reviewing?
#2259390 by LightinMind
I'm good at...
More interested in the content of what you write than the style. Theological, political, historical, scientific, or experiential, or indeed anything that paints a vision of the future. A good grammar checker will tell you about spelling and commas.
Favorite Genres
Not entirely sure as I like most stuff. I prefer something with a soul rather than purely secular. But I like Sci-Fi, anything Christian, and also 'What-if' type speculations with plausible plots.
Least Favorite Genres
Anything that fails to look for a way out of the darkness. You can be dark, just don't wallow in it. Generally, I try to steer clear of Fantasy, and most Dark or Horror stories just make me laugh or grimace due to their ignorance of the dark side.
Favorite Item Types
I have really liked some of the heartwarming dramas I have read here particularly personal stories. Thought-provoking poems or stories are cool also though I am no expert on poetical forms.
Least Favorite Item Types
Anything that is just an affirmation of the dark side. I hate empty words. I always look for human intelligence. I try and avoid Fantasy and Horror where there is no metaphorical resonance or connection with real-world truth.
I will not review...
I mainly review at random and just see what grabs my attention. I will usually skip stuff I do not like unless it gets me riled or if it is interesting for other reasons.
Public Reviews
Previous ... 42 43 44 45 -46- 47 48 49 50 51 ... Next
1126
1126
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: 13+ | (5.0)
Received this via random review and was hooked on the first stanza

Reader Experience
Tells the story of an arranged marriage where a young man actually demonstrates what true love is by standing up for his wife and protecting her from his parents. It is a call to take seriously the plight of so many women living in rural Indian villages

Commentary

Loved your poem which though long kept me captivated from start to finish with the tale of how this young man is paired with a stranger and then ends up loving her. A man's love for a woman did used to be defined in terms of protection and provision and I was interested in the contrast you drew with a modern American female who is looking for a bit of romancing, for gifts and trips to special places. His love seems so serious by contrast, but there he is protecting a woman whom initially he hardly knew and growing to love her on a farm for which he is probably up to his eyeballs in debt for, despite the low level city job he worked in. Many modern women do not want or indeed need male protection or provision as they feel secure as a result of legal protections and careers of their own. That this is not the experience of the vast majority of women around the world and through history often eludes these women. The fact is that most Indian marriages do endure while many Western marriages end in divorce and bitterness. Poems like this do a lot to break the high maintenance sense of entitlement that exists among many Western females, reminding us of simpler times when women were not so lucky.

Just realized I did not find any mistakes which kept me focused on the content, which was very engaging. Thanks for sharing


"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1127
1127
Review of Ornery  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (5.0)
Received this via random review and stayed because it reminded me of a neighbor.

Reader Experience

Ornery = bad-tempered or difficult to deal with.. I had to look it up to be sure but remembered it correctly. In this case the grumpy old man is so cause of sense of decline or loss since the days of happier memories. He just wants to gripe about this and prefers to be left alone

Commentary

Perfectly constructed in 24 syllables and it appears you won the competition with this. It was a perfect summary of my neighbor. It was both welcome as an articulation of feeling and also left me feeling quite angry when I thought about him. Why is that some people can just well never see the bright side of things and never seem to smile at all. Well it is Christmas so probably a time for love and forgiveness. But where did I put that shotgun?

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group



*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1128
1128
Review of The Time Machine  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Received this via random review and liked the theme

Reader Experience

The author bid in an auction, for an item, in a box, she did not know the contents of. It turns out she bought something like a car which is probably the news her husband was hoping to hear when she called him. Her husband, who works at a garage, takes time off work to collect the car and put it in their home garage, then returns to work. That evening they sit in it together. The dials have dates on them and when they switch the dials suddenly they are whisked away....

Commentary

Why the author was off spending money on blind auctions is one question I had, it is either a car sale or not. It is clear there was no discussion about the purchase which seems to be quite substantial.

That said who would not want to acquire HG Wells time machine - or more likely in this case the de Lorean from Back to the Future.

So I liked the story line.

There were a few difficult lines here:

The cover was pulled back and the attendant and both said at the same time = The cover was pulled back and the attendant and 1 both said at the same time.

'I thinks so.' = 'I think so.'

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group



*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1129
1129
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Received this via random review and considered your poem insightful.

Reader Experience
The worker is employed to monitor and police workflow dates and approvals rather than the front end projects where the real credit is won or lost. But his systems are mainly routine and could be automated and his process is often bypassed by top managers and by temporary replacements. He has a feeling of redundancy and knows his pink slip is long over due.

Commentary
I used to build software to automate soul destroying tasks, this is now a built in feature of many applications and no programmer is needed to implement that. The point in my view, of such automation, was to set people free from mindless drudgery to do more creative things. It was a shock to me when having built various workflows, in one company, that I was the one made redundant, while the people whose jobs I had automated, continue to this day to click pointless buttons, to check automatic tasks, where the checking has all been done for them, by my programming. The insight I gained is that people do not necessarily see their jobs as callings, or an end in itself, and managers keep the people who are first and foremost loyal to them, rather than the people who understand what to do. So effectively much of the workforce is today a bunch of drones who turn up, get paid and then go home. There is often little reflection on the achievements or failures of the day as one day blends into another. The author here is however self aware and he poses the bigger dilemma facing millions in the workplace today. A lot of jobs are now completely unnecessary and the fear and the uncertainty that that generates is colossal. We are on the brink of major changes and it is not always clear where the new jobs are going to come from.

The poem itself was fine, though it is quite an achievement to make a poem, about this subject, interesting, and the material would have been hard to squeeze into some kind of rhyme or structure, so maybe a free verse was the best format for it. I guess you could have tried poking more fun at the stupidity of the processes and people, to add some humor and energy to it.

Thanks for sharing and for your thought provoking poem.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1130
1130
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (1.0)
Received this via random review and it warranted a comment

Reader Experience

This is a short note that points to a larger story that is not there. It suggests that hate is the equal of love

Commentary

There are a great many reasons to hate people, including receiving bad ratings and reviews, or worse bad ratings with nonsense reviews, which you can do nothing with. Even some of the best writers on this site are really quite rubbish at reviewing other people's writings. You can start wars over these bad reviews or you can let mercy triumph over judgment, learn what you can and move on.

That said your Manichean declaration that love and hate somehow balance in this universe is highly controversial and is asserted not demonstrated. It is love that creates the universe, hate only knows how to destroy and to spoil. It is love that builds people up and hate that tears them down. Hate is not the equal of love as if it achieved full success all existence would be desolate or cease altogether, while with love things keep on growing. People think that the semantic logic of pairing love with hate makes them equals but it does not. Love could equally pair with fear as its opposite and neither fear or hate have the power of love.

The idea that hatred of a common enemy is a more powerful force than love as a binding force is also debatable. Hate sucks the life out of its host, if you live on hate alone, you burn out and it is not a binding force when the enemy is remote or in temporary lulls between battles or when victory has been achieved.

So I think this content is incomplete, and controversial without explanation.

In this sentence: Hear is my story of the power and bonds of Hatred. - it is here not hear and Hatred does not deserve capitalisation

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1131
1131
Review of Dream of Me  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: ASR | (4.5)
Received this via random review and liked the poem

Reader Experience

The progression of the seasons comes with a plea, in each, for the beloved to remember and dream of the lover.

Commentary

Used your edit point to correct the line to "When frosts begin to chill the air" not sure if that worked or not.

You wrote this as a free verse which was fine, though some sentences seemed too long, compared to others, disrupting the rhythm a little.

Anyway overall thought it was great, thanks for sharing.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1132
1132
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: ASR | (4.5)
Received this via "random" review (but getting a lot of love poetry this morning) and liked the first stanza.

Reader Experience

The author describes a computer romance that could be developing into something more. So long as the two can let their love dance in God's light that is.

Commentary

The first stanza is brilliant and got me hooked:

You touched my heart so quietly,
You never said you would.
Our hearts embraced so silently,
I didn’t know they could.


It was so perfect and intimate that I found the next stanza a real disappointment, as suddenly I realized the lovers had never actually met in the flesh. There was a sudden loss of intimacy and the social distancing of looking through the window of a computer screen, at the loved one, some where out there, remote from touch, hugs and kisses. Then there follows verses expressing the uncertainty of outcome associated with a new romance and also hopes that God will be involved adding a higher meaning to it and a higher quality. God of course does animate love and magnify it but his involvement here initially sounded forced, like idealized expectations of one true love being forced onto a situation. It is the hope of every Christian couple that God bless their love, but this is not the mere application of preexisting labeling and routines to love but rather an authentic engagement together with God. So your last idea of dancing together with God worked quite well I thought mirroring the eternal dance of the Trinity and bringing your love into God's light.

Anyway that is just my experience of your poem. Thanks for sharing.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1133
1133
Review of Sunsets  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (5.0)
Received this via random review and loved it

Reader Experience

The author experiences a sunset they wish they could share with the one they love.

Commentary

Loved this poem from 6 years ago. It is a timeless theme, it has been done a thousand times before, but somehow you managed to make the experience a fresh one for me in this poem.

I loved this line
"through a sky littered with haze"


"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1134
1134
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.5)
Received this via random review and stayed because I liked it.

Reader Experience

The poem mourns a dead wife whom he misses.

Commentary

This was from a long time ago. But it is simple and powerful, some emotions endure through the years and the sense of a love lost is among the most powerful of these. In Cockney rhyming slang wife is "trouble and strife" so the rhyming of these words wife and strife amused me. You also used the word "ferment" to describe life with this woman implying that it was not always a bed of roses. But it is the ones that get under our skin and make us feel that we love and that we remember when they are gone.

I agreed with the last verse describing thankfulness to the Almighty for the gift of the time spent with a wife, but it jarred with the rest of the poem, as if a guilty attempt to refocus the poem on the Almighty having spent the entire time focusing on the feelings for the lost wife.

Thanks again for another quality piece.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1135
1135
Review of Be?  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (3.5)
Received this via random review and was intrigued by the philosophical theme.

Reader Experience
The writer explores the concept of being and not being.

Commentary
"To be or not to be that is the question" said Hamlet contemplating existence or non existence. But in this authors investigation the question reads more like a play on language that a real investigation of the grounds of being or not being. There is nonsense language here like "Being is always possible even when one isn't a being". This reminded me of silly questions like can God build a round circle? But there has been serious thought through the ages and some actual answers have been arrived at:

Some consider Being an illusion as we are all in a continual state of flux. We manufacture constructs of identity and existence to ease the pains of transition but they are illusions. Nietzsche for example as well as many Buddhists hold to this view.

Descartes "Cogito Ergo Sum", suggested that because he knew that he was thinking therefore he must exist. As it required a being to think. That the fact of contemplation implied existence and therefore the possibility of Being in itself.

Plato looked beyond the shifting shadows of what we see to the true forms of Being that underlie them.

Religious thinkers regard God as the grounds of Being and the guarantor of all lesser beings in the universe. Because He is Eternal, Almighty, Omnipresent and all knowing and all wise He is the only grounds of Being that survive all tests of change and circumstance and is therefore the only guarantor of permanence.

Many today, and indeed many writers, have lost all sense of Being, in itself, as an objective phenomena. They regard an omniscient story teller, in a persons narrative, as an example of bad and boring technique and a mistake, as there is no Omniscient story teller, in their understanding. For them there is only interpretation and one must delve deep inside the subjectivity of oneself and how one imagines subjectivity to look like in another to tell a story. The obvious danger here is moral relativism and indeed a breakdown of communication as the reference points of language and understanding are no longer regarded as having any objectivity in themselves. In such writers there is a loss of the overarching meta narrative and all is localized and subjective.

So I would suggest your investigation was mainly word play and did not delve deep enough into the real thought that has been given on this question.

Anyway that is just my opinion, or is it objective? Well that is the question isn't it?

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1136
1136
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.5)
Received this via random review and was struck by the raw power in what you said.

Reader Experience

Olivia was put into foster care at age 5. She has since moved through many foster homes. She describes the pain, feeling of impermanence and heart ache of her experience.

Commentary
Powerful, emotional piece that helps all of us understand what it would be like to be a foster child. Birthdays are marked as calendar dates rather than celebrations of a persistent connection with a single family and loving parents. The tears are for what could have been and what it might have felt like to have stayed with her original parents. Social distancing is a survival mechanism to cope with continual change and people are pushed away so that they do not see the nighttime tears. There are foster parents that care and provide safety and security but that sense of loss from missing parents is a continual heart ache.

There are a number of things you could do to improve this writing:

birthdays just meant one more year staying at a that was not my own = birthdays just meant one more year staying at a home that was not my own

This sentence needs reworking:

I always looked forward to I don't know why maybe because there I could at least try to relate to people and make friends or maybe because I didn't want to be home sitting on the bottom of a random bunk looking out the window trying myself not to cry and still feel my warm tears

Thanks for sharing your story.


"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1137
1137
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.5)
Received this via random review and was hooked by the hot topic of the moment.

Reader Experience

Kathie Stehr comments, with some dismay, at the ways in which government and political discussion has developed the past 4 years, under the narcissistic Donald Trump. The crisis is especially acute given the recent election result and ongoing pressures of the Pandemic. These crises have revealed a deep political ignorance in the American public and the ease with which unscrupulous demagogues can manipulate them.

Commentary

Your words reminded me of a bible verse:

"Love builds up and Knowledge puffs up."

There are two kinds of ways of knowing things. There is the way that seeks to build others up, to serve, inspire and affirm the good, pure, true and noble. Then there is the kind of knowledge that is self serving and is used to magnify the self. As an outsider to the American political process looking in I have watched Trumps demagoguery with some amazement and a great deal of interest. It has been a performance, evoking ridicule internationally, but so also it seems to have been remarkably effective with his target audience in the USA. He knows how to find and then use the emotional triggers in an audience in order to get them to work for his agendas. But Trumps agenda is mainly about staying at the center of attention and power. The greatest concern to me has been the ways in which he has manipulated simple church goers, who formed a core group in support of him, who have learnt over many years to distrust mainstream media and the "Deep State" over the years and were ripe for a great deceiver. He played the God, guns and greed preoccupations of many Americans faultlessly and had it not been for covid19 I believe he would be staying in the White house for another term. But you are right that a little bit of education would have helped insulate Americans from Trumpism and the Woke Culture Manipulators on the other side also. But this education is not just about political process and institutions it is a basic reading of scripture in a culture where too many people no longer know how to read properly, a sense of right and wrong and a compassion for the exile, the immigrant, the widow, the orphan, the sick and the poor appears to be missing. Trump manipulated Christians on the right with promises to sabotage universal health care, allow assault rifles in the home, a nationalistic America First ideology and by picking on immigrants!!! Yes Trump delivered on Supreme Court Justices but these seem more concerned with gun laws and Obama care than abortion for example despite the rhetoric with which he sold them to his target group. I think a lot of Republicans seem to be afraid of destroying their own political careers by opposing Trump, such is his hold on the party, but following the Georgia elections it should be time for that party to be rid of him. From Europe I have watched with some dismay as a party that uses God's name all too often to justify its own grip on power abused that name with what it actually did with power.

One of your sentences seems a little wierd to me:

I know that I have learned a lot about government, at the advanced age of 67, then I ever kept up with before = I know that I have learned a lot about government, at the advanced age of 67, that I never knew before.

Thanks for the enjoyable and topical article.


"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1138
1138
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Received this via random review and it made me laugh

Reader Experience

Where do all the lost socks go. The author contemplates: washing machines and driers that eat laundry; Wormholes at the foot of the bed; black holes; clowns from the dark side who cross dimensions to steal socks. So somewhere through the portal to the darkside there is a very large mountain of stolen socks.

Commentary

Very funny and familiar issue but there were some issues with your sentence structure.

Do think washers or dryers eat socks? = Do you think that washers or dryers eat socks? OR Is it possible that...


Or when you take your socks off in bed they are sucked in a wormhole? = Or that when you take your socks off in bed they are sucked into a wormhole?

They happen to fall in a never returning dark black hole. = They seem to fall into a dark black hole that never returns them.

Knowing very well you are left with one sock left. = Knowing very well you are left with only one sock.

About the washer and dryers I think that the clown stops the cycle for a moment, the tumbling, and takes a vacuum and sucks the sock. = I think that the clown stops the cycle, for a moment, on the washer and tumble dryers, and vacuums up one sock from each pair.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1139
1139
Review of Let Be  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Received this via random review and liked it, though maybe I did not really understand it.

The genre given here is romance but the language in the first stanza is religious. Let there be light are the words that launched creation but here they are a prayer for illumination of the object of affection.
"above the horizon of the galloping passion" sounds quite saucy and again keeps the focus on the beloved.
Let there be sight is a call to see not only the beloved but the brokenness and irritation that is evoked in the eyes of less attractive people, shunned lovers or jealous bystanders?

Let there be whatever is,
Let there be whenever is,

Whatever! Whenever! Not sure why this metaphorical shrug regarding consequence is here.

Then I get a little confused by this next line:

So though it might,
hurt in absolute solitude and straying.
Seek forth delight,


So the lover is now deprived of his beloved, (did she stray or he or are they just socially distancing in the middle of a Pandemic?),and is now condemned to an "absolute" solitude. What opportunities exist for delight if he is deprived of the object of his affections?

in the sparkle of the youth, before the drying.
So he to rejoice in his own youth where is the beloved?
Drying or dying?

Let there be light,
darling, in this heart, amid tears and crying.

So the beloved has now returned from wherever she disappeared to, but whose heart is being referred to here, his or hers, why are we now crying, have the galloping passions ceased or do they still need work?

Sorry but as you can see I got a little confused by this poem

But thanks for sharing, I hope the above is helpful and please ignore the rest.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group






*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1140
1140
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (5.0)
You requested reviews for your experience of covid19.

Reader Experience
You feel lucky to have survived and described how you were tested, had a chest x-ray and the actual experience of the virus and then recovery.

Commentary
It is always fascinating to hear the testimony of an actual survivor so you were always onto a winner with the content with me. Congratulations on beating covid19 to pulp and then some. The food comments were interesting. I kind of hoped that if my family ever had covid they might actually start to enjoy my cooking. But from your account that does not seem to be likely as food tastes awful. You had a near death experience and it seems recovery involves being thankful, cleaning up the house, reconnecting with the cats, enjoying good food once more and sharing your experience. Your brother sounds like a hero or a saint or both, cool dude anyway. Glad he did not get it. There are a lot of "I"s in your account but then I guess it was all about you so why not. You are missing a few commas and some of the sentences need breaking up.

Anyway loved it, there is not anything majorly wrong with it and I enjoyed your testimony so 5 stars.


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1141
1141
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
You requested reviews for this piece and as a fellow believer I felt I might be able to offer something constructive.

Reader Experience
You tried to call Jesus but the man you got through to was not him. You sent him a tract

Commentary

In the pit of despair where is the red line to Jesus? Where is the phone that calls in the rescue package from God Almighty, on demand, when and where we want it? Where is the phone to call for healing for the hurting, the next meal for the starving, the next drink for the thirsty man in the desert, the freedom for the oppressed and salvation for the sinner? Maybe I just need a new app on my smart phone with touch controls and an easy to understand wizard that takes me through the request process. Why can't it be that easy? Why must I suffer in this dark and broken world? Come on Lord, there is no limit on the number of miracles you can perform, no limit on the potency of your gifts, no limit on what you can do for me? I dial your number: 53787 on my German phone and just get "Nummer unbekannt". What is going on, why are you not listening to me?

What was that I heard, did you speak, it was not with words, you did not ring, it was an impression planted in my soul - a single word - "Job".

I read the book of Job and I learn something new, that "though he slay me yet will I trust in Him". That faith builds its muscles in brokenness and its strength in my weakness.

There will come a day when we shall stand in God's presence brother. There will be no need for phones or smart phone apps. Our pains will be gone, sins forgiven and souls washed clean. In his awesome presence I somehow doubt you will ask, "Where was my phone call in my darkest hour?" All things shall be made abundantly clear when that day comes. Until then call the Samaritans or pop into your local church.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1142
1142
Review of Other World  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (3.5)
Received this via random review and stayed for the Sci-fi.

Reader Experience
Jackson returns home, to say goodbye after 30 years work in the solo mines of Ravwa and a 2 year trip on his dry spaceship. He beams preset evo-messages to people he knows but is not interested in meeting. He will leave pretty shortly afterwards for a further trip to the old Earth system with its fabled Uranus outposts.

Commentary
There are a lot of unanswered questions in this short story. A lot of focus was placed on the poor humidity control systems of the space ship which could have been used to explain why he did not want to meet anyone. What is a solo mine? Is that a mine which he mined alone? Something about why he left his home in the first place and why he was now going to earth.

There are some problems with sentence structure:

though head team would likely make an announcement = though the team chief would most likely make an announcement

He looked out more alertly when he realized he could make out the Torith Ocean = When he realized he could make out the Torith Ocean he became more alert

The consultancy job out back in the old system, where Earth and the fabled Uranus outposts lay for him to discover = He had a new consultancy job, out back in the old system, where Earth and the fabled Uranus outposts lay for him to discover

Thanks for your story and please ignore any unhelpful comments above.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group



*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1143
1143
Review of Take Me As I Am  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
Received this via random review and it is my first review of a triolet.

Reader Experience
I was impressed by the triolet structure which was properly implemented. The beloved begs her lover to accept her as she is with no false conditions. He should love her as she is not ask her to change

Commentary
The naked woman picture places this in nature. One wonders if her husband asked her to have cosmetic surgery or something. Or, as with many wives, wanting us men to suddenly become proficient and regular cleaners after centuries of being slobs it could have been one of those normal marital disputes. The word suspicion would lead in all sorts of random directions. Is he expected to accept her being a nymphomaniac that sleeps with other men for instance. Her view is that if he loves her he will not set false conditions to their love, he will not force her to compromise on her essential dignity in order to force her into a pattern which he finds more acceptable. But the man's answer is surely, it depends on what you mean by that. The essential structure and the style seem great. But was put off a little by the ambiguity as to what on earth she is talking about.

Thanks for your triolet.


"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1144
1144
Review of Samhain Unrest  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
Received this via random review and was hooked by the report of a Scottish festival I had never heard of

Reader Experience
Samhain lies at around 31st October and marks the end of harvest time and beginning of Winter. It is the separator between the light of Summer and dark of Winter and so the occult logic goes is when the veil between the world of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. So a big party is held by the Gilchrist clan and some rather disgruntled spirits initiate a food fight which is now famous in Scottish lore.

Commentary
It is an amusing take on a rather marginal Scottish festival. Most Scots celebrate Halloween or indeed All Saints Day Eve on the same occasion these days. It raises questions as to whether a party would raise the spirits of dead ancestors and describes a pattern to the structures of the afterlife which is controversial. But it was well written and stylistically good and very funny.

Thanks for sharing



*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1145
1145
Review of Lost  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
Received this via random review and was hooked by first few lines.

Reader Experience
Rose is lost in the woods without a map, a spinning compass and with no signal on her cell phone. She wonders far from the path, trips over a tree and then is eaten by something resembling Big Foot.

Commentary
In a day and age that is google maps dependent, the wild seems like another world. You need a physical map and some idea about to read the moss on trees, the sun in the sky and the various other ways direction can be established. Why her compass did not work is kind of mysterious and adds to the sense of being lured to her death. I liked the story which was well written with no stylistic mistakes. The last moment focused on what she saw and while she was in pain from tripping over a log the experience of being eaten was apparently not phrased in terms of agony even though the creature ripped her stomach open.

Very good thanks.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1146
1146
Review of Corona Virology  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Received this via random review and it was short and cryptic and therefore pregnant with possibility for commentary.

Reader Experience

Corona virology implies this has something to do with the whole discussion about how we catch and transmit the SARS-COV-2 virus.

My body held in solitude,
My spirit cloistered but free,
could mean he is wearing a mask, socially distancing like monks of old but his spirit remains free. This implies he is held in said solitude against his will like a prisoner.

My mood unyielding and rude
Since I refuse not to be me.


Now he could be unyielding and rude cause he wears a mask and refuses to die of this virus, and thereby stop being "me", by being carelessly irresponsible about masks or social distancing OR it could mean that he refuses to wear a mask cause somehow it cuts himself off from those connections and expressions by which he defines himself and he is resisting the social pressure to conform for everyone elses sake and is proclaiming his freedom in this poem instead.

So not sure if he is a pro or anti masker.

Commentary

My own extended family are as divided on this topic as many others. I will be glad to be reconciled to them when this Pandemic is all over.

Liked your poem which is way too cryptic to spell out anything like a clear message on the topic of our times. So I guess you get to play both sides and have both sides buy your poem thinking that you speak for them and their generation. Or maybe you just had a cold and were feeling grumpy who knows *Wink*

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group



*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1147
1147
Review of Woolworth's  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.0)
Received this via random review and was intrigued by the theme

Reader Experience

This describes a trip to an actual physical Woolworth food and also a retail store in a shopping mall.

Commentary

The last 5 and dime store closed in the USA in the late nineties and in the UK in 2009. The original concept of affordable quality in your high street has been replaced by online shopping today. So I guess this poem refers to distant memories. I was so intrigued by the content I forgot to check the structure. But this is not a poem, there is no structure or rhyme. It is in effect a free floating memory, like virtual Woolworths today in fact, displaying in a square inside my browser but no longer in the mall.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1148
1148
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (3.5)
Received this via random review and was intrigued enough to stay

Reader Experience
A terrifying sound in the night turns out to be something more familiar.

Commentary
Thought it was a good suspenseful build up to a funny ending. But there are some issues with your use of tenses and sentence structures.

and the only thing that can be heard was the eerie sound = and the only thing that could be heard was the eerie sound

Very instantly, she felt a pair of unseen eyes peering at her ferociously = Suddenly, she felt a pair of unseen eyes peering at her ferociously

giving her all the possible blood-curdling imaginations = arousing all possible blood-curdling imaginations

She is, sure enough, wasn’t hallucinating, nor is she dreaming because she already pinched herself a million of times but the horrendous feeling never disappeared. = Sure enough, she wasn’t hallucinating, nor was she dreaming because she had already pinched herself a million of times but the horrendous feeling never disappeared.

It’s almost midnight, but she seemed unable to go back to sleep = It was almost midnight, but she seemed unable to go back to sleep

When she thought her dilemma has finally ended, the squeaking once again appeared. = When she thought her dilemma had finally ended, the squeaking once again appeared.

She can no longer stand with it = She could no longer stand it

As she put her hands off her eyes = As she removed her hands from her eyes

I hope the above corrections are helpful. The story was great but it needs to be expressed properly.


"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1149
1149
Review of A Shadow of Guilt  
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: 18+ | (5.0)
Received this via random review and stayed to enjoy the work of a master wordsmith

Reader Experience
Will's wife is dead, he chooses to walk home from the funeral, but lost in a haze seems to get lost. So the journey home takes longer than expected. All the time he pursued by a strange and horrible creature.
He contemplates suicide but persuades himself that might deprive him of ever seeing his wife again. The creature now breaks into the house pursuing him into the bedroom where the grand finale occurs. In shooting himself he kills his guilty conscience also and sends himself to hell.

Commentary
I really cannot fault this. It leaves enough unanswered questions to provoke thoughts after the reading of it also. How did his wife die, why did he not feel guilty for the year before her death, but had done so before that? The descriptive language is perfect, albeit quite bleak and dispiriting as in line with the story. That a person could allow guilt to grow so powerful and so real that it could manifest as a creature so horrifying and compel his suicide and journey to hell is scary stuff indeed.

I loved this line:

Black pines spread bristled arms through the charred night, and the moon cast down a jaundiced glow that seemed more to obscure than to illuminate

Thanks for sharing.


"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1150
1150
Review by LightinMind
In affiliation with WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group  
Rated: E | (4.5)
Received this via random review and was intrigued enough to stay.

Reader Experience
He is sailing a boat home then lying on his back to see a vision with his eyes closed. The two actions apparently lead him to his mother who is waiting.


Commentary
The first paragraph is quite sensual, set in a sailing boat, and the second takes us inside. The first has a hot sun beaming down the second has the sun setting to make way for his mothers star. It is all quite mystical and the connection between the two is not obvious and probably quite personal. It is not explained why his mother is associated with a star that must be seen with ones inner eye.

As a stand alone it is both powerful and mystically makes no sense. Thanks for sharing.

"WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group


*Gold* My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!.
1,316 Reviews · *Magnify*
Page of 53 · 25 per page   < >
Printed from https://writing.com/main/profile/reviews/luminementis/sort_by/r.review_creation_time DESC/page/46