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Shannon Winestone's avatar

I see that your college years were very fruitful, as these are fabulous poems! I especially love the melancholic romanticism of poems such as “These Hallowed Halls”, as well as the more gothic poems such as “Mare Clausum” and “Shock”. There’s something beautifully eerie, haunting, and chilling about those.

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Michael R. Burch's avatar

When I became a serious poet around age 14, I wanted to be a warlock who could make readers feel things the way the great poets made me feel things. "Mare Clausum" and "Shock" were like attempts at magic spells. I always liked eerie poems. I wrote "Mare Clausum" because the term made me shiver when I read it.

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Shannon Winestone's avatar

That has always been my goal as well—namely, to make “readers feel things the way the great poets make me feel things.” I personally think you have been very successful in meeting this goal. I’ve always liked eerie poems as well. I’m actually aiming for the poem I’ve been working on recently to possess an eerie quality.

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Michael R. Burch's avatar

I will look forward to reading your eerie poem when you publish it. Poets who can pull it off are in a select group, I believe.

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Shannon Winestone's avatar

Thank you! I hope I’ll be able to pull it off. It’s probably best to not get too excited yet, just in case I am not in that select group who can do so.

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Michael R. Burch's avatar

One can always do one's best. And the more chances one gives oneself, the better the odds of success. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

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Shannon Winestone's avatar

Thank you, Mike!

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