Acknowledgements: I regret that I did not publicly acknowledge my thanks for the donating of points. In the future, I will ask the donors if they wish to remain anonymous or if they would not mind being given public recognition.
Before I proceed, I want to thank my mother and my father, my sisters Carol, Margarethe Therese, my brother George Louis, my brother in law Ignacio Garcia Gabarro' and his family, my uncle (Ti'o) Carlos Padilla and Aunt Sally and their daughters' and families, and so forth, bla bla blah.
Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Americans! And to the rest of you beautiful people, from my heart I send you waves of comforting love, courage to overcome whatever is in your way, healing to remove even the most ghastly tumor or most irritable object in your eye...
I ask of you that you think hard about any conflict that forces people from their houses: this can be war, drought, famine, terror, fire, floods, violent winds...
I'm looking for excellence in both craft and art. This must be from the heart, but it must show care, attention to detail.
P.S. I've extended this deadline a third and final time, partly because there are few entries, and partly because it is highly probable that I will have to pass a few hours or days in the tank (jail) because I allegedly pulled a gun on a teen who was threatening me on the street. Anyhow, as soon as this gets sorted out, thanks to God and my attorneys, I'll judge the contest. Happy New Year!
Rules:
1. No sticky caps.
2. Adult topics are allowed, but you may wish to add a version which is
G-rated so the young folk can get your message. I will not take off points for adult content, but I will add points for your thought fullness to the young ones who can't access the adult stuff.
3. Other languages are okay if you include an adequate translation into English.
4. No limit to length, as long as it doesn't drag like a trawling net through corals and other sea life.
5. No hate language, please. Be thoughtful; thank you.
Before I proceed, I want to thank my mother and my father, my sisters Carol, Margarethe Therese, my brother George Louis, my brother in law Ignacio Garcia Gabarro' and his family, my uncle (Ti'o) Carlos Padilla and Aunt Sally and their daughters' and families, and so forth, bla bla blah.
Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Americans! And to the rest of you beautiful people, from my heart I send you waves of comforting love, courage to overcome whatever is in your way, healing to remove even the most ghastly tumor or most irritable object in your eye...
I ask of you that you think hard about any conflict that forces people from their houses: this can be war, drought, famine, terror, fire, floods, violent winds...
I'm looking for excellence in both craft and art. This must be from the heart, but it must show care, attention to detail.
P.S. I've extended this deadline a third and final time, partly because there are few entries, and partly because it is highly probable that I will have to pass a few hours or days in the tank (jail) because I allegedly pulled a gun on a teen who was threatening me on the street. Anyhow, as soon as this gets sorted out, thanks to God and my attorneys, I'll judge the contest. Happy New Year!
Rules:
1. No sticky caps.
2. Adult topics are allowed, but you may wish to add a version which is
G-rated so the young folk can get your message. I will not take off points for adult content, but I will add points for your thought fullness to the young ones who can't access the adult stuff.
3. Other languages are okay if you include an adequate translation into English.
4. No limit to length, as long as it doesn't drag like a trawling net through corals and other sea life.
5. No hate language, please. Be thoughtful; thank you.
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on December 28, 2005
- Rewards: Gold: 300
- Final notes: Good afternoon, fellow Western Hemispherians, or good morning as the case maybe. Good evening and good night, for those others as our revolutionary progress or lack of it by earth's rotation and time zones may indicate. Hello and peace, goodwill, good health I wish for all of you:
I worked rather hard to critique each poem, to consider it in light of the prescribed parametres and good verifying hold. At times I wished I had a panel to help me judge. Maybe we'll set that up in the future. Anyway, I want to say it was not easy, there were quite a few good submissions. So those of you who did n't win this time around, I want you to consider yourselves winners just by the fact that you took the time to enter, to think about the suffering of others. I hope that you continue to ponder the fate of those less fortunate than we, than you or I, than those who have at arm's reach enough food, drink, technology to make life easier.
Even though we live in an age some describe as the Technological or other epithets alluding to the ease of global communications, transportation, and other such marvels of technology and infrastructure, we have perhaps more poverty and suffering than ever before, or often before. We have more hungry, more homeless, more enduring slavery, more war and killing than ever before... Why? Why do we allow this? Can you or I do anything to make life better for those in distress?
I think that we can, each of us do something. We may not save the world, but we can alleviate a little of the suffering, whether it be of poverty, of ignorance, of hurt induced by domestic and neighbourhood violence, of nakedness in the harshness of weather, of hunger in the lack of real nutrition. I ask you to assess where you are today, if you have even a few moments to get out away from your comfort and business, to get out and make a POSITIVE difference in the lives around you. And don't stop with a token effort. Really get going and change. Change yourself for the better. Change your household. Change your class. Change for the better your community, your state, your nation, your world. There is NO LIMIT to the good we can do if we only TRY TOGETHER.
Here comes two thousand and six. Let's GO!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Entries [5]
1 - 5 of 5
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It's the age old story, come again --
Old men sit home and send the young to die.by ecrivain01 43 lines, 62 comments, on Dec 24 11:33 AM 2004. In Other, Contemporary
Silver trophy winner
• Commented on by judge. -
BOILING CLOUDS SO BLACK AND DREARY,
CAME FROM SEAWARD TOWARDS THE MAIN.• Commented on by judge. -
Surrounding the street, proud Americans look on• Commented on by judge.
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Somewhere a teardrop is shed, and an innocent life is taken.
He has shown us mercy by giving another, and with that I say AMEN.by xXWarrior PoetXx 28 lines, 3 comments, on Dec 21 9:20 PM 2005. In Society• Commented on by judge.
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Comments
1 - 11 of 11
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I think this is an excellent idea for a contest. Too many of us don't take the time to think of those who may not have so much to be thankful for. Hopefully this will help open people's eyes and their hearts. Good luck with judging.
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Cool!
Great contest. Sad and odd that there haven't been more entries. You would think that people could find something to write about. Where are those who lost everything in the aftermath of "Katrita" (my shorthand name for the two hurricanes), writing about their losses and triumphs in the aftermath? Hmm. Maybe somebody will come forward before the contest closes. -
Tell your friends and acquaintances
Thanks for your participation, Dave:
And if I may suggest, there's Darfur, Rwanda, Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Waziristan, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iran's Bam earthquake-stricken district, Iraq, Chechnya, Algeria and France, the Balkans, the ethnic ghettos and poverty stricken Third World enclaves of America, Mexico, the slums of Rio di Janeiro, Sao Paolo; Santiago, Chile; the recovering areas of Katrina Rita, the tsunami; Brixton,South London, and Ulster in the U.K. (among other communities), the homeless children who hide in the metro and sewer tunnels of Leningrad and Moscow, the orphans of Romania and Eastern Europe, the women who have gone into self-exile looking for jobs, and been caught up in the slave and sex trade, the overworked and uninsured American workers, the sweat shops of our globallized economy... Well, my point is there is no dearth of ideas, if one just looks around. (This isn't directed at you, Dave, but I thought I'd post it here at this opportunity in time and space). -
I couldn't agree with you more. I just Hotel Rwanda today. I knew beforehand how horrifying genocide can be, but after watching that, I feel like I need to do more. Jauquin Pheonix's character had said something during the film that struck me as being so true. In talking to Paul (the hotel manager and an amazing human being) about some footage that he had shot earlier in the day, he had said that the images would not bring help to them. He basically said that people will see these pictures and they will talk about how sad it is and then they will turn around and finish their dinners...
It's a sad, cold fact. More people should be like the hotel manager. More of us should stand up for what is right. More of us should come to the aid of those who need it. -
Guess it's time to write. Saw the show on the tsunami today, and that will give me incentive to create some heartfelt lines. Thanks for hosting..A sad day for many others today, those not as lucky as we.
Edited on Dec 25, 8:13 p.m. because ''. -
I read your plea for entries on the Shameless Feature List...and have submitted a poem to your contest. I realize it's last-minute, but I didn't know until your feature that this contest even existed. hope your holiday was good, and enjoy the judging!
Jo -
ty Jo; am trying to finish the judging today. Betwwen calls to thr IRS, cause they want money i neither owe nor have!
Happy new year! -
awww...Cafe. I know priorities and maybe we should both just move to Switzerland together! you'd rid yourself of some IRS difficulties, and I have an EX who could really envy some new Swiss movement dangling from my arm!
y'all take your time with the contest judging. with all of life's issues and the holidays too, you're not even late coming around to judge in my opinion.
Jo -
great winning choices Cafe and will always look to contests which you may feature in the future! CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!
Jo -
Thanks for the Bronze Medal.
I am honoured to be a part of your contest.
Congrats to other winners and best wishes to all.
Happy holidays,
manoj -
I thought I'd already posted to say thanks for the trophy. I evidently didn't, or I don't see the comment. Anyway, thanks again. Congratulations to the other contest winners too.
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