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i saw that pete was identified as the author of poem #6, "icycles," one of the grand prize winners, and then he admitted to authoring poem #16 as well. i hadn't seen anyone else really claiming their poems, but i was advised by linda that i really ought to do so. maybe my action will inspire the other poets to do the same, now that the whole thing is over. so here it is... i authored these poems:

poem #2, "Soft 17"
poem #11, "In My Winter Rest" *ALMOST WINNER*
poem #22, "Lovers in Winter (A Haiku Triptych)"

thank you.

HI T-

It's funny, the only poem i had a strong feeling that i knew the author was, "Soft 17." I was right

Congrats on your *almost* poem.

I submitted 2 poems but really only wrote one for the contest. #19 (winter's charity) i penned about twelve years ago. It was so appropro for the contest, i had to toss it in.

My other poem #4, Bifocal (also an 'almost' )was a bitch to write. Tis all true. I have a small creek running through my bit of property, 'groves' of indigenous blueberry bushes and snow. I spent about 5 days and nights in a love/hate relationship with that poem and ended up submitting it when i tired of trying to tame it. I know i gave up too soon. oh well.

Laurie

I wrote #1 Snowy Seasons. I think I overdosed on the rhyming aspect.

Paula,

I remember that day and your poem so well...the beginning of the contest and me afraid of what might happen. I think your poem was an auspicious beginning.

...and poem #14, Winter's Promise....written by my better half, Liz, who decided, after enduring me spending hours writing Eternal Winter and also ridiculing my 'Icicles', that if you can't beat them then join them

Pete

Paula......
If that was your first poem then I salute you

If it was not your first poem...then I still salute you

It is impossible to overdose on rhymes


'snow lays on the silent ground like cotton roll unfurled..'

in a perfect world..yes.. but all we seem to get is sleet and slush and power cuts

such is life

looking forward to your next entry in the next contest

Pete

Cheers Pete and Linda t'was my second poem. The cotton wool I buy from Superdrug (after the dog has got at it) is normally brown and slushy pretty much like British snow. I used poetic licence

I can picture the scene with you and Liz Pete. You huddled over a writing pad sweating buckets and Liz saying give it here let me do it. It is a scene enacted in most families every day

Paula,

T'was, t'was it? Do I hear a third on the way?

Pete: Aren't you the cutest, little tow-headed boy? There is a sweet, little girl around here sometimes, her name is Margaret. You two would look lovely together.

Pip pip, cheerio and all that,

Linda.

wow, this is great. anyone else wanna fess up to who wrote what? (maybe we'll find out who wrote "beowulf" )

Let me add my congratulations to you, poets!

Hi Pete, Congratulations! Each time I read "Icicles"-I like it better. Also, "Eternal Winter" has a very appealing sound and structure. It certainly was not toward "the other end" or however you phrased that. Also, please tell your wife that "Winter's Promise" is an excellent effort. One of the most difficult things about judging was not knowing the experience level of all of our poets. I determined early on that I was going to be most critical of the "winners" in an effort to help "refine" otherwise already worthy efforts. I would never have made my critical remarks about "heart" if I hadn't known that this poem showed excellent promise.

Hi Teratogan, "In My Winter Rest" is a very musical poem. You have a tremendous amount of potential. I really feel that someone like Michael could help you a great deal. Writing good poetry is difficult and sometimes requires throwing away notions acquired listening to popular music. Keep up your work and don't take criticism to heart. Look for those people who are interested in helping you improve rather than those who simply want to say nice things to you. You write better at your age than I did-I wish that I had someone to criticize my writing when I was your age-we didn't have forums like this then-so I would put my writing down on the page and think it was wonderful! What I needed was someone to carefully question me on what I meant.

Dear Paula, Now is the best time to start and you have your first poems down-and even in public. You have a great sense of rhyme. If I'm not mistaken, you are a bird watcher, and I urge you to study "Winter Feeding" and how the author very carefully presented a scene to us. I can't remember the exact quote, but Leonard once talked about the specific and how "I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill" was a phrase that resonated because of the specificity.

Congratulations and thanks again to all of you. I'll make some other comments later to our other fine authors.

Joe

thank you, joe. you are right about criticisms though. for quite a long time i have written poems, songs, stories, essays, anything, and people tell me they like it, or good job, or it was nice, or so many wonderful things that juts feed my ego, and so when i hear criticisms i get defensive. sometimes i wish i'd get more of it so that i know when i'm doing something wrong, or not necessarily wrong, but doing something i could do better. know what i mean? i went through high school and community college getting A's in all my english classes because nobody would tell me i wrote something that could have been better. but that's ok. the A's are not a bad thing to look at once in a while! hahaha. thanks again though, joe. i do appreciate one of my poems being an "almost winner." in my opinion it's just one of the six poems that were recognized, regardless of its title.

by the way, who is michael?

My dear Critic2,

An offer for you to help Teratogen with his writings! Even support for your "egoless writing" (by the way, how's that site doing?). That must make you feel good. At least someone here thinks as much of your abilities as you do! But of course, you are friends so maybe he is simply "being nice".

Right. Out of that shell now and tell us which are yours.

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wait, paints, so this michael person joe is talking about is c2???? oh, i dunno if i'm up for that... it's one thing to hear criticisms, and it's another to hear them from c2.

And my poem, is the Vivaldi one and I hope you like it. Joe said nice things and that pleased me!