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Reviews For: Paybacks a Witch *May be renamed to Alibi*
beatrice is hot 2006-12-21 . chapter 1
The plural of "alibi" is "alibis", not "alibies."

"Do you see where you've gotten/with your obvious alibi" should have a question mark at the end. This is because it is a question.

In line 23, "care" and "less" should be two different words; "careless" means thoughtless, as in to do something thoughtlessly or carelessly--I believe that you mean "care" and "less", as in the common snub, "I could care less."

The lack of appropriate punctuation in this poem cut it deeply. For example, the apostrophes before the "s"es in "paybacks" that are required to make the phrase read "payback is" were really quite necessary. As it is, the line "Paybacks a witch" reads "more than one payback a witch". Apostrophes denote more than just possessives.

Also, the comma splices in that stanza just killed me.

Please proofread your work before posting it in the future. May I suggest two techniques that work well for me:

1) After you've written the poem, leave it alone for a few hours while you do something else. Then read it again; you'll be surprised at how your impressions change. Something you've just finished usually seems perfect, but a piece that's been left cold for a while opens itself to changes and gives you a chance to prepare for the inevitability of self-criticism.

2) Have someone else (someone who's not afraid to hurt your feelings) read your poem before you post it. Get an honest opinion. Have the thing proofread.

Behind all the grammatical errors, you have a poem that's based on an interesting idea. However, I did notice a few wording issues, by which I mean "things that make no sense." The most important issue--well, the definition of "alibi" that I think you're using is, basically, "alibi: an excuse made to avoid blame." Lets plug this in, in place of alibi, and see if your poem still makes sense:

"Excuses, they don't make good lies."
Aside from being grammatically incorrect (comma splice!), this sentence does not make sense. Excuses don't make good lies? What? What constitutes a "good lie", exactly? Did you mean that excuses are easy to see through? Well, something see-through certainly would be a bad lie--but can it apply to ALL EXCUSES? Some alibis make great lies. Yeah, pretty much what I'm saying is, your line doesn't make sense.

"Your excuse is just like you/says it'll be there right on two./Shows up an hour late/and decides to reschedule the date."
While I appreciate your attempt at a metaphor, it unfortunately follows that, actually, it doesn't make sense for an excuse to show up late. Did the person with the excuse show up late? Obviously, yes. But the excuse cannot be a symbol for the person, because the person is MAKING THE EXCUSE--in your words, presenting the alibi. The alibi doesn't show up late--well, maybe the person shows up late and makes the alibi then, but the alibi itself is EXPLAINING the lateness. Again, this doesn't make sense.

Oh well. Sorry. Try again?
Kerowyn 2003-02-18 . chapter 1
nicely written. i like it
Carter Stockwell 2002-08-19 . chapter 1
whoa. if ever there were a category of **-kicking poetry (And I mean that in every sense, from literal to figuative and beyond) this would certainly be the reason for such a category. This poem was great!
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