. As you know, anyway, rules are rules. However, I do want to thank everyone who contributed poems. We had a tremendous showing, with 26 poems submitted. A couple rejected
and one may be a swap for the person's earlier one 
~ not determined yet; it may also just go in as a second one by the person.What a great spirit everyone brought to this, though. As I said earlier to Laurie, "YaY!!! Finally winding down ~ WOW! Talk about a contest success extraordinaire! People sure got into the spirit of things ~ despite all the sniggling and snaggling, which in its way transformed into something more along the lines of snuggling. I've had a full day of laughter
." Driving home, I laughed as I drove....just thinking, remembering some of the exchanges and comments. A delightful day of laughter here; a day of lovely reading in "Dear Heather."I had to make sure my Inbox kept space open for PMd poems to arrive. With my PMs, saved some, copied-and-pasted others, and deleted a few, just to ensure there was always open, poem space. I've really enjoyed all the entries. Here comes the schmaltzy part ~ and I wish everyone could win! However, even though I commented to someone earlier "winning/losing," I meant and should have said, "winning/not winning" ~ big difference.
In watching all this unfold, I can't believe it's taken this long to happen! It's Critic2's fault, of course. If he hadn't sat on the idea for so long, we could've done this long ago! With "long" obviously the word of the day, it's been a long one....I'm ready for bath and bed.
Thank you to our A-1 Judge, Ms. LaurieAK ~ now your work really begins ~ or at least continues even deeper.
Goodnight everyone.....thank you so much, truly, for getting into this the way you have. It's been such a great time reading all the poems. You'll get your chance. Now, tomorrow, I finally get my chance to listen to "Dear Heather" ~ Thank you, Leonard
. Love,
Lizzy