Rattle

On the poetry site where I most often post my poems, the comments are generally of two sorts. The supportive ones, which are generally short and bland, e.g. “I loved it!,” “Beautiful!,” “Thanks for sharing!” and the negative, which are generally along the lines of “That sucks!” or “Your poems are shit” or “You’re a fucking moron.”
There is very little middle ground.
I must admit, I take pleasure in the supportive comments. But they really don’t help me improve any more than the others do.
I recently posted a poem, not one of my best IMO, but it struck a chord, much more so than average, and got a lot of comments. The vast majority were of the positive variety, and one was a gif of projectile vomiting. Not too worried, I’ve read that guy’s stuff and it’s all really depressing poetry about death and shit.
It would be good if there were more nuance. Constructive criticism more than insults. A relevant comment, or a poem of one’s own, instead of shallow praise.
Maybe I’m expecting a bit much. But for people who consider themselves poets, which implies a deeper understanding of the universe and a greater sensitivity to all things human, we sure tend to think along narrow lines.
We could do a lot better.