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That's probably quite a bit too generous of you B , but rightly or wrongly, this subject did make me think of something as it goes.

(I am missing the guess the song game btw- but my mind just keeps going too blank all of the time! Maybe 33 was the edge that I just fell over or something )

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Hi Alsiony and Karren, I really liked your idea and I think it might encourage some people to post that wouldn't normally.
I think that Lizzy may have been responding to my poor choice of wording or is just being cautionary.

Cate wrote:Hi Alsiony and Karren, I really liked your idea and I think it might encourage some people to post that wouldn't normally.

That's what I was thinking too when I suggested it. It would be lovely.
But Lizzy has a point I think (I don't think that you phrase anything badly btw Cate) - I just think that sometimes the Sea can seem a little too harsh at times, and really above everything else - that is a terrible shame.

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Yes, but I think community threads like you suggested can be a bit of a lagoon.
Here's an example of one viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10888 in which we were writing about the moon - There was about a dozen people who contributed something, Diane had one of the most unique poems I've ever seen, Greg had a picture - beautiful and the last poem - he left us speechless. A forum troll did visit but he was behaved. This probably isn't the best example of one of these threads - it's just one that I go back to on occasion.

Oh, dear, don't feel sad, Alsiony, or anxious, anyone else, about what I said. What I was referring to wasn't an informal "let's choose a topic and write and let that topic this time be Leonard" [which IS a wonderful idea]; but rather a formal, poetry competition such as we've had here in the now-rather-distant past... entries are sent to a middle person, who forwards them on anonymously to a judge or a judging team of two. The selections are made and then ranked according to the "Winner," etc.

Unfortunately, when the contending poems are publicly posted, much discussion surrounds the winners, and some are never commented on at all. They disappear into Forum oblivion. Of course, it's rather predictable that as poetry construction, itself, goes, familiarity with the language it's written in will be a major factor... so it ends up favoured toward native-English speakers.

With the last one, I meant to visit each entry [after the poems and their rankings were revealed], but time constraints got in the way and I never got very far.

What I feel strongly about [who rarely visits here anymore ... time constraints, again] is that with such an exercise, kindness prevail... no bad-rapping of people's efforts 'allowed.' That's all.


~ Lizzy

Edited for P.S. ~ When I say "kindness prevail... no bad-rapping of people's efforts 'allowed'," I'm making the implicit distinction between ridicule and mocking, and constructive criticism and suggestions.

I followed the thread you provided, Cate, and responded there with this:

I wish I'd been around to see this thread at the time and been able to comment to ~greg on the impact of the graphic piece he created and the longing unsatisfied in his poem on VietNam.

I love Laurie's and will print that one. Gingermop's... cute . Daka's is very elegant. I remember seeing Diane's clever one in a different context, and actually Laurie's looks familiar to me, too. I really like yours, Cate and Jill.

You can miss a lot when you don't visit this place. Onward and upward with poems about Leonard.

You're right, Cate, on my being "cautionary" about it.


~ Lizzy