Why I Love Wisconsin! --- A Poem

 It's winter in Wisconsin and gentle breezes blow,70 miles per hour at 52 below.

Oh, how I love Wisconsin when the snow's up to your butt.

You take a deep breath of winter air and your nose is frozen shut.

Yes the weather here is wonderful,I guess I'll hang around.

I could ...never leave Wisconsin, cause I'm frozen to the ground!

On Marriage, by Kahil Gibran (the reading we selected)

Then Almitra spoke again and said, And

What of Marriage, master?

And he answered saying:

You were born together, and together you

Shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when the white wings

Of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together even in the silent

Memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance

between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love;

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores

Of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from

The same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let

Each of you be alone.

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they

Quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together;

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each

Other's shadow.

Fairy Art--mama Art

My three year old precious fairy who wasn't previously interested in the art scene, came up to me yesterday with her lastest masterpiece and asked me to put it on my blog --(now geeze, just a few years ago do you think a three year old- would have known what a blog was---heck, I'm 39, and I just figured out what it was just a few months ago, even though I remember them talking about it at the publishing company for which I formerly worked:)

Speaking of publishing, a couple of months back I saw an ad in our newspaper for a poetry contest being hosted by the International Library of Poetry. I also saw cash prizes (like several $1000 and greater), which is what grabbed my attention. I've been published on several occasions, starting with being a writer for my award winning high school year book (and being offered the Editor in Chief position). I've been published a few times in college---so anyway, my point is it wasn't the publishing part that grabbed me (as it seems that in this age of electronics, any Joe Shmoe can easily get "published"--isn't that technically what you're doing on a blog--self-publishing:), minus the copyright laws)--it was the CASH--and what does cash mean, SHOPPING! Ok, so I did it, I decided to go for the gold and submit a poem as I have several really good ones stashed away from my before kids and husband creative days. So, lo and behold, yesterday I received a very detailed congratulatory letter on my poem, entitled "THE FINAL SUNSET" (and trust me, this is a good one filled with alliteration, very vivid imagery, deep emotion, and a story to tell!)---tons of details were in this letter, and of course a book you are not obligated to purchase of where my poem will be published--and I was told out of the thousands of submissions, mine is one of the few that will go into the semi-finalist round (for the cash prizes:) Ok, so it all still looks good and enticing--but then they asked me to re proof my original poem before it goes to print---someone had retyped it into a small section and had too many errors in their "translation" to count. So THAT made me wonder about the legitimacy of this. I've done a LOT of editing over the years (maybe not always doing such a good editing job on my own blog at times:), and this just doesn't happen! I just took one quick look online for info. on the International Library of Poetry--and the link below is the first thing I found: http://windpub.com/literary.scams/bbb.htm

Ok, lesson learned--it looked fun and legit--but just in case there really is a cash prize, I think I'll go ahead and finalize the submission, but not buy into the book they sell ($50, plus another $25 if you want a biography of yourself printed as well:), and see what happens--hey, I'm not proud, cash is cash if that were to really happen:) (as an aside, I have it in writing that I still own the copyright to my poem, the publisher owns the copyright to the anthology as a whole).