Killing The Poetry Bug

So, I tried entering a poem on Lulu today.. (a contest site offering a 5,000 dollar prize for the best amateur poetry.) Not a bad idea except that my poem was way too long for their 24 line standard entry. Determined to squeeze it in, I tried taking out all the in-between lines and running the sentences together like water colors blurring on a canvas.. (not the best choice, really?) After that failed, I did something every artist hates, I started chopping away at my own work.. ahhh! Cutting out well crafted lines for the sake of saving space! Leaving the poem pruned and scalped!! Nothing short of artistic torture. No, I learned today that killing your own art for the sake of conformity isn't worth any amount of money...but since it's done now...maybe I'll keep my fingers crossed for that 5,000 dollars!!

CLICK HERE to enter your own work on Lulu. (Remember 24 lines only!) Just one catch...if you win, you share your prize money with me!

CLICK HERE to see my trimmed poetry on Lulu. (Search for me by name, Poet Anica Washington)

Plaxo

Welcome to the Matrix, Neo! CLICK HERE And you'll be taken to Plaxo. What a cool site... connects all the different social networking sites that are out there at one easy portal.

Entering The Blog-o-Sphere For The First Time

Wow, so this is blogging. Does anyone else have any memories they'd like to share with me about how they felt during their "first time". Blogging that is! I would really love to know if I am the only person who's experienced this sensation...(we'll call it blog-o-phobia for now) characterized by a slight tingling at the ends of your finger tips while you're anxiously typing away, followed by a strange floating feeling in the pit of your stomach as you ruthlessly scrutinize each and every word that comes out. Maybe it's the fact that I know full well whatever I type will be launched aimlessly into the sea of social cyberspace and eventually the drizzle of my mind's inner dialogue (good, bad or otherwise) may end up frozen somewhere in the archives of all blog-o-dom?... Where ever that might be? It's kind of like sending a good plastic water bottle into the land fill...where it could be dug up perfectly preserved in say a million years by another human race. Maybe I'd much rather recycle my water bottles, keeping my personal, spontaneous and odd thoughts from becoming blog-o-sauruses for future generations of young anthroblog-o-gists to pick at... It all just seems a little intimidating, don't you think?