Sunday Picnic

[jjhunter]

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

Comments

Apologies

[jjhunter]

Hey all--

I just wanted to apologize for how this week turned out Poetry Host-wise. I was quite sick during the second half of the week and absolutely swamped with work. If it's alright with you, I think what we'll do is that I'll post my planned posts this upcoming week instead and have last week essentially be an unplanned hiatus. Apologies again for the poor precedent, and I hope you enjoy the posts when I finally get them up. (First will be this upcoming Tuesday.)

Re: Apologies

[alee_grrl]

It happens to the best of us. I hope that you feel better soon!

Re: Apologies

[serene]

Don't worry about it; this should be fun, not something you trudge through when you're sick. Hope you're feeling a lot better!

Re: Apologies

[bookblather]

Don't worry about it. Crap happens, and you need to take care of yourself first. *hugs*

Challenges #5-6 extended

[jjhunter]

The deadline for challenges #5-6 has been extended to Friday, April 20th 11:59 EST in hopes of attracting more participants.

Winners will receive their choice of either 30 Dreamwidth points (i.e. one month of paid time) or custom digital art icon (100x100 pixels, 300 ppi) on a theme of their choosing made for them by jjhunter.

For more details, see the challenges post here.

weekly roundup thread

[jjhunter]

If you have poetry news personal or general that you would like to have included in the weekly roundup, please reply to this thread.

Re: weekly roundup thread

[serene]

I won my school's top poetry prize. Kinda proud of myself, even though when I read the winning poem now, I don't think it's all that good.

Re: weekly roundup thread

[jjhunter]

Hip hip hooray! Is there a copy of the winning poem online that I might link to?

Re: weekly roundup thread

[serene]

No, unfortunately, except in a locked FB post (they're publishing it in the school magazine, and I will open the post after it's been published). There are links to the story, though, even though they got the details of my life wrong (I figure I'm the only one who cares which order the events of my life came in):

http://www20.csueastbay.edu/news/2012/04/declercqStudentReadings-041012.html

http://oaklandlocal.com/article/north-oakland-resident-serene-vannoy-wins-top-student-poetry-prize-cal-state-east-bay-haywar

Re: weekly roundup thread

[jjhunter]

Hee! Well, at least they spelled your name correctly (I assume) -- I've been quoted in a newspaper with my legal last name misspelled in a hilarious way, which takes some doing considering that it is a compound of two monosyllable words and the whole thing is spelled phonetically.

Re: weekly roundup thread

[alee_grrl]

Congratulations! That's a great accomplishment, and definitely something to be proud of. I know what you mean about having second thoughts afterwards. I get those all the time.

Re: weekly roundup thread

[bookblather]

Congratulations!!

Re: weekly roundup thread

[fyreharper]

Congrats! :)

April Poetry Check-In

[jjhunter]

If you've been doing a month-long challenge this month, what's your favorite piece of poetry you've posted so far?

Re: April Poetry Check-In

[snowynight]

I've been posting poetry on my journal and my favourite is Birds, Creation, Gaps because I like the imagery.

Re: April Poetry Check-In

[alee_grrl]

So far I have managed to do at least one poem a week, which was my goal. Of the three I've done I think my favorite is "Forgetting"

Re: April Poetry Check-In

[bookblather]

This is my favorite, though it doesn't have a title.

Iron Poet still open!

[raze]

I'm new to Poetree and while I consider myself an awful poet with minimal experience meaningfully interpreting the media, I have come to enjoy/appreciate it thanks to a great professor I had a few years back in college. Just wanted to say that I've enjoyed lurking in this group, and perhaps one day I'll bring something to the picnic for some concrit.

Since I'm a newbie, I figured I'd share one of my favorite poems, which I'm sure many of you already know: Voice of the Voiceless by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Many versions of this one, of course; this is my preferred.

[jjhunter]

I found this stanza particularly meaningful:

Let no voice cavil at Science--
The strong torch-bearer of God;
For brave are his deeds, though dying creeds,
Must fall where his feet have trod.
But he who would trample kindness
And mercy into the dust--
He has missed the trail, and his quest will fail:
He is not the guide to trust.

Thank you for sharing -- that was actually the first time I've encountered this particular poem!

It's really wonderful to have you here in whatever capacity you feel comfortable with; I'm glad you're enjoying it so far.

[alee_grrl]

Welcome! Sharing of favorite poems is a great contribution for the Sunday picnic. :)

This is a lovely poem, and I am surprised I haven't encountered it before. Thank you for sharing it!

[bookblather]

I also hadn't encountered it before, but I really enjoyed it; it's like all of my thoughts on religion and duty to our fellow creation in one poem.

invitation to collaborative poetry

[jjhunter]

If you have a little free time today, come contribute a stanza or two to today's haikai fest seed Poetry Like Paper over at my journal.

I crease words over
line breaks, fold and refold sense
origami verse

[alee_grrl]

The past couple of weeks have been really crazy and stressful for me (and sadly the next few weeks are looking to be more of the same). I find cute things help when dealing with stress so here are a few cute picture with poems that I have enjoyed over the last week.

Friday Haiku: To Bee or Not to Bee

Friday Haiku: Flashy Fellow

Cute Overload's Friday Haiku Thread

[lnhammer]

I've posted a draft TOC for an anthology of English poetry before 1923, of 100 poets, 1 poem each over in my LJ. If anyone has better arrangement or choices or, espcially, an actual TITLE, I'd appreciate any comments.

And with that done, maybe now I can get my brain to obsess on the revisions I was supposed to finish, oh, ages ago.

---L.