The review of Watermark is brought to you by Online Dating Directory. Read articles and tips for dating as well as find online dating sites.
Watermark
Sharon Brogan’s blog is entitled, “Watermark- A Poet’s Notebook.” When I first read the title I thought to myself, “Well, that’s just great. I think I’d rather be stabbed in the eye with a fork than read somebody else’s poetry.” I have had bad experiences with poetry in the past, and was not looking forward to reviewing this blog.
If you are like me, and have struggled with poetry in the past, then Watermark is the place for you. Sharon Brogan’s work redeems all of the tacky, cliché, and downright boring poetry that I have been exposed to. Her poetry is honest and refreshing; it takes us to a place where we have all been, but frequently forget about. But to understand the poetry of Sharon Brogan, it is important to know a bit about her life.
In Sharon’s “About Me” section, we learn that she has lived in mostly rural places. She is currently in Montana, and has lived in remote areas such as Alaska. She has spent much of her life as a “career-focused workaholic,” and Sharon's blog appears to be a place where writing fulfills her in a way that her work could not. We also find that Sharon struggles with fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by chronic fatigue (to my understanding).
All of these aspects of her life can be seen as themes throughout her poetry; themes that are at the same time universal to everyone and personal to Sharon.
The heart of this blog is the poetry. All of Sharon’s poetry has been neatly organized into a section entitled “Oratory.” The poems are listed alphabetically; from Abigail, to Winter Solstice. The poetry is at the same time simple and complex, full of pining and contentment, searching for the past and living in the present. Sharon writes with a sensual style, that makes her images easy to see and feel. She often writes about a desire to return to the comforts of nature, a lover’s arms, and childhood. Her ability to write about these things in a way that we can all relate to, makes her poetry accessible to even the most novice of readers. In my humble opinion, Sharon’s poetry, along with her blog, is an attempt to capture that single moment in time that “arises, still clear and bright, white against a blue sky.” (Pelicans feeding in the Slate River…)
My favorite part of the blog was the few poems attached with audio posts. I am assuming that Sharon was the one reading the poems. What a great idea to read these poems aloud! Poetry is meant to be heard, not read; and my only complaint (or rather, request) would be that there aren’t enough audio posts.
The layout really is beautiful in its simplicity. Nothing shouts out at the reader, and the feel is calm and relaxing; which is conducive to reading poetry. In the sidebar, Sharon has links to just about every blog and website in existence. There are also plenty of posts about things that she finds interesting, with plenty of links. This means that even if you don’t like poetry, this blog has plenty to offer. Sharon does a nice job of including plenty of pictures to go along with her posts.
Watermark is a great blog for poetry lovers, and poetry haters alike. Sharon has created a wonderful place to come and reflect on the things that matter in life. Her writing and poetry take us all to a place we long to visit and return to.
This site was reviewed on 2004-12-16 by Arthur.
They felt this site belonged in the Creative Writing category.
Arthur felt that Watermark deserved a rating of 5.
When a weblog is submitted, the author chooses a category their blog falls under. The author here chose Creative Writing and with the name of Watermark, I found that to be a good name. Think of the watermark on a dollar bill, or a digital watermark on an image, etc... Good concept I thought.
When I first got to Watermark I noticed the caption which read "A poet's notebook" and look around. This one looked better from the get-go versus the last poetry site I read, so I was happy. Diving into the site, I realized that this was not a site just about poetry. In fact, I don't think it would be possible to put it in a specific category (as a whole) since there is so much to the site.
Lets break down the site into a couple of categories and talk about them individually. First up is the poetry which is probably supposed to be the main focus. I am not a poetry critic. I do not know what makes a poem good, or what makes one bad. I do know if I enjoyed reading what is written, and in this case I do.
The next part that is obvious with the site is the general types of posts one would find on a weblog. And while there isn't anything in particular that sets this one apart from the rest in this category, at least the posts are very well writen and enjoyable to read.
Finally there is the animal section, which has a high population of cat posts. These range from random images of animals to actual posts about them. I would almost say to move this area to another blog, but it completes the picture that the author is trying to get us to grasp. Besides, from my understanding she posts at a bunch of other sites too and it would be all the more complicated. My favorite by far was the bully penguin.
My only gripe with this site is the design. While it is a lightly modified template, the author is using frames for whatever reason to keep the url the same on all the pages (both internal and external). This was annoying when I was visiting sites as they either opened in a new window, or if they were a site the author posts on, it opened in the same frame. I am not a fan of this, as it takes away the control that I have over the site.
Overall I thought Watermark was a good site. There is definately something there that sets this apart from the rest of the sites out there and I suggest you go look and see if its your cup of tea. Even if you aren't a fan of peotry, the rest of the site will be worth your time.
This site was reviewed on 2004-12-16 by Brent.
They felt this site belonged in the Creative Writing category.
Brent felt that Watermark deserved a rating of 3.5.
2 reviewers gave Watermark an average rating of 4.2500
Site Stats
Site Category: Creative Writing
Reader Rating: 2.4167 based on 3 votes
Report URL
Cast your vote
Sorry you need to log in to vote.