leonardcohenforum.com

Greetings Poets,

Today is the day we begin. You will have until the close of the day here on the Forum, January 19th. That will give you a little over one week's time. You can write and revise and revise again!

We are limiting the entries to, at most, three (3) per participant. Each poem must have a title. You may use the first line, but please still indicate that as the title of the poem.

Please pm them to linda_lakeside. If you submit more than one poem, please submit them all together.

Foremost among the criteria that I will be using to judge them are clarity, imagery that is fresh and vivid, and the ability to 'show' not 'tell." I promise not to be cruel, but remember I am judging a poem not you.

Linda and I will try to check back here should you have any specific questions. To allow her to keep her inbox free, please don't pm her with anything but submitted poems.

And the topic is: winter.

Good luck, have fun, and enjoy the creative process.

Joe

Joe Way wrote:Please pm them to linda_lakeside. If you submit more than one poem, please submit them all together.
I promise not to be cruel, but remember I am judging a poem not you.

Linda and I will try to check back here should you have any specific questions. To allow her to keep her inbox free, please don't pm her with anything but submitted poems.

And the topic is: winter.

Good luck, have fun, and enjoy the creative process.

Joe

and Greetings back at ya' Quizmaster Geezer. I wonder why you want poems from one contestant submitted together. Will LL then seperate them as you, Dear Judge, shouldn't be influenced by knowing more than one entry comes from the same, albeit unidentified, source.

That is correct good sir. This is being done as suggested by Lizzy who tells us that keeping track of the poems and authors became problematic. Linda will not submit them to me together. I hope this dispels any fear of impropriety. Good luck to you.

Joe

Ahem kind sir. The proliferation of WMD has now been debunked officially, but the proliferation of multiple personalities may create possible hiccups, if I were to enter 3 pomes/dirges/prosaic prose or otherwise by using the countless number of personalities I have created on this forum. They are countless because I can't count above 2. ( a bit like a tribe in the Amazonian jungles) although they can count to 3.
Rest assured that Albert and I will play a game of scissors/paper/stone, to decide who shall add their name to any possible entry from this 'ere abode across the pond.
The kittens are running around like wild things in anticipation of being heralded before your august body. But Albert has recently returned from the shop wiv a new bottle of tomato sauce.

Hi Byron and Albert

I'm judging poems not personalities. As T. S. Eliot said, "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry."

You wrote:

"The kittens are running around like wild things in anticipation of being heralded before your august body."

All I can say is my body is more December than august.

Have fun.

Yours in anticipation.

Joe

Thanks Joe in advance for the work you are undertaking on behalf of the poetry section.

Winter is broad enough for me.

But please explain for this beginner what you mean by "show not tell". Can you give examples. Thanks very much.

Hi Achilles,

I just got in and as I see that Joe hasn't answered your post, I will try and fill his size 14 sneaker for now.

I cannot read Joe's mind, but I'm thinking that by 'show not tell' he might mean - show us your subject by way of words - make us actually 'see' what it is that you're trying to convey instead of a 'still life' description. Emotion, clarity whatever it takes to make the subject become 'alive' as opposed to a flat description of what you choose to talk about. Let us feel the same passion you do about your subject. Give in to it.

These are my words and my opinions - what Joe thinks - only Joe knows. This is my interpretation - I'm not doing the judging. Yet as a fellow fledgling, I think poetry speaks volumes. A description of a piece of snow is just a description of another piece of snow. I can't add any more. Imaginiation.

Good luck,
Linda.

Good Luck,

Linda

I did't mean to add that last bit twice - so sorry - a double click.

Hi Achilles again,

Sorry for the double post (while I struggle out of my coat and boots). I'd
also like to make note of your request for 'examples'. I don't think any are available. So, let's all try and make up our own.

Good luck to all!

Linda

Hi Achilles ~

A quick example for you:

"The old man seemed angrier at him than he'd ever been."

"Shaking and barely able to stand, he grasped the chair to prevent his frail and stooped body from collapsing in the frenzy of their rage. Now thinned by time, the skin on his face and hands blazed red, as his blood surged through blue, knotted and bulging veins, popping from beneath his flushed and sweaty flesh."

This was a quick-go, but hopefully you get the point of "show-not-tell."

~ Lizzy

What was that movie? "Lost In Translation"?

Definitely ~ all entries should be submitted separately to Joe by Linda. However, they can be submitted either separately or together to Linda. She will be copying-and-pasting them for sending them onward to Joe. She will keep track of from whom they were written. There should be no chances taken on guessing who may have written what or whats; hence, all poems should be submitted to Joe by Linda ~ separately.

The really crucial thing is that each poem be given a title by its writer ~ prior to submission! That's what gets complicated and cumbersome, is trying to get back with the writer, and get a title sent back, before being able to send it on to the Judge! The poems must be COMPLETE in every sense, prior to submission to Linda.

OK, I'm outta here.

Okay, you did it again....except this time you made my night

" . . . will play a game of scissors/paper/stone, to decide who shall add their name to any possible entry from this 'ere abode . . . "

Hi Achilles,

Welcome to the poetry contest. I've been out and about and appreciate Linda and Lizzy's answers to you, and I would like to expand upon them just a bit.

Let's suppose, for example, that there is a kitten out there, and a bear. Someone tells you that, "hey buddy, better watch your kitten-there's a bear out there." You might put your kitten in the house. But the believability is not quite there.

However, if someone writes, "My bear is pouring tomato sauce on kittens" implying that the kittens are more delicatable in this fashion-it may not be more believable, but it is certainly more interesting to the reader.

This is, perhaps, a gross oversimplification, but I hope that you get what I mean. By the way, I took this example directly from a poetry instruction site but they used a Lion (how cliched!) instead of a kitten.


Good luck and I'll look forward to reading your work. Don't worry as I said before, despite my lack of credentials, I intend to be helpful in a kind way in whatever manner I can.

Joe

P. S. As one last example, I could change my Yeats signature to read: Hi, I'm going to the lake this weekend to get away, and I hope that it finally makes me feel better when I have to go back.

Lizzy and Joe, I was just about to say those very words, but you beat me to it. Next time.

A very broad topic. The broader the topic, the harder the writing will be. ("But it's four in the morning, and once more the dawning...") Maybe, if I can find enough additional restrictions, I try to shoulder the task. Just maybe.

A few questions as to the rules:

Does "topic: winter" mean the word "winter" will have to be part of the poem? If not, according to which criteria will you judge a poem "off topic", Joe?

Will "no title", "untitled", or maybe "these stanzas can never have a title" be accepted as "titles"?



Tom