The LitNet Poetry Anthology – submit here

[Jerrybaldy]

Ah, it's an impossible job!

[desiresjab]

Ah, it's an impossible job!

Ya. Wait, was that a submission? I knew they'd start to come in. I just knew it!

[Jerrybaldy]

Hey Desirejab. I just posted 6 on the previous page

[desiresjab]

Hey Desirejab. I just posted 6 on the previous page

Thanks, Jerry. I don't even know how I missed those. I guess it was the page turning over. Not supposed to comment. Read the last one three or four times. Immaculate.

[desiresjab]

Dieter, lad, have not heard anything from you recently. What are your thoughts on the project? We are slowly getting submissions, as you can see.

I glanced by another part of the forum and saw that you are already a poet with published books. I mean to get back over there soon and read. I did not realize that. I know almost nothing about everyone here.

How voluminous do you think our tome might be? Small? Medium sized? Large? I envision a large vloume, but submissions have been scant. I am currently limiting my reading of poetry on the site to this submission thread, with spontaneous exceptions. There are too many thousands of poems on the site to plow through.

* * * * *

Funnel your best right here, folks. This project can get done. There are more competent people than myself behind the scenes. As long as they are with you, you cannot fail. I am your faithful cheerleader.

[desiresjab]

I will keep submitting as long as others do.




What's In A Word
by desiresjab




What did God do in order to create?
He spoke. He did not stir a worm bucket,
He spoke everything into existence;
There was no waving of a magic wand
Or the huffing of air into his mankind:
This one you claim to adore only spoke
And being fairly wise knew what would work.

If God exists, who says it's not benign?
It threw our lips languages to begin
The long road learning to make things of words.
The poet in a purple puff of fume
Is hard at labor on another charm.
Who would spank the child for such a deed,
For emulating his heavenly dad?

Do not ask why the bard chants poetry.
If God does not exist then our wordplay
Must coax the geometries of heaven.
Not the dead heaven as Stevens saw it,
Where all that a man was dies like a fruit,
But the best of visions we can conjure,
For man really has only one prayer.

A human crawls then craves immortal life,
And seeks the godly if and only if
A church, mosque or temple promises more.
No god is worth a hoot to us unless
Some atom-less thing retains consciousness.
Mortal life deserves a casual thanks
From some, if this is our exclusive glimpse.

God or no God, the universe is weird,
And man a cloud of atoms hardwired
To speak, be curious and use symbols.
The mind feels finer than the body's mist
Yet knows by symbols that it must exist,
And strives to know if it configures them,
The forces binding its continuum.

Electron microscopes see no spirits.
Resurrect the antique charms of poets!
Human voice is called to make paradise,
Or unveil the one already so near.
The content of our words will ring elsewhere,
Holding in existence we know not what,
Monsters, gods, or the only thing we want.




Copyright 2014 by Jesse Baird

[Sam Smith]

Hi, guys. I'm not really sure I understand what the plan is for this project... who chooses the poems to go in the final piece? Is there a limit to an authors content in the final piece? (not a criticism but it would appear to be an anthology consisting of two or three main people who submitted a lot) of course if there isn't enough entries then it wouldn't work; I understand this. I like the premiss, though, it seems like a cool idea. What is the future plan is what I'm asking too. Cheers.

[Pompey Bum]

These are but a few of the mysteries of the Bible.

[DieterM]

@Jerrybaldy – happy to see you here and happy to see you participate!

@desiresjab: still here, man, but extremely busy at the mo. And I don't want this project to look as if it were mine so I try to lean back and see what my fellow LitNetters "do" with this thread.

[DieterM]

Hi, guys. I'm not really sure I understand what the plan is for this project... who chooses the poems to go in the final piece? Is there a limit to an authors content in the final piece? (not a criticism but it would appear to be an anthology consisting of two or three main people who submitted a lot) of course if there isn't enough entries then it wouldn't work; I understand this. I like the premiss, though, it seems like a cool idea. What is the future plan is what I'm asking too. Cheers.

Hi Sam – the questions you ask are excellent. And I still haven't got the answers although I am amongst those who kicked off this project. If you have any suggestions, please please pretty please: participate! I agree with you that without more input and without more participation the project has no sense whatsoever.

You see, I've sketched a few rules for the project (cf. the first post of this thread) but merely to kick it off; they're surely not "canonical". I thought they'd be amended, discussed, improved etc. by fellow LitNetters and by their input. Well, there hasn't been much for the moment. That's why the whole thing looks as if four or five guys decided to do this on their own, but that was not and still is not the goal, at least not in my eyes. I try to keep it going, and so do the others who already have posted some submissions. To be frank, and I'm glad you seem to agree with me on that, I still think that to put together a LitNet Poetry anthology is an excellent idea, not so much because the Forum needs publicity but because I've read a whole lot of extremely good poems in this section ever since I joined LitNet.

The future plan? If you have the means and the power, persuade other LitNetters to participate. Let's improve the project. Let's come up with an idea of how to select the poems to be included "in the final piece" as you say. Let's enhance, improve, amend the whole thing. And if you write poetry, submit. If there's any poem a fellow LitNetter has published on here and that you simply love, submit.

I still believe in this. But frankly, if there's not more interest, more input, more enthusiasm, well, then I guess there'll never be a published anthology at all.

[DieterM]

These are but a few of the mysteries of the Bible.

LOL. Good to see you here, Pompey Bum. Wanna participate?

[heartwing]

What if you just want a place to submit your "what's its." I'm not even sure if it's poetry. It's pretty prosy, but I wanna place to be bad.

[Sam Smith]

Hi Sam – the questions you ask are excellent. And I still haven't got the answers although I am amongst those who kicked off this project. If you have any suggestions, please please pretty please: participate! I agree with you that without more input and without more participation the project has no sense whatsoever.

You see, I've sketched a few rules for the project (cf. the first post of this thread) but merely to kick it off; they're surely not "canonical". I thought they'd be amended, discussed, improved etc. by fellow LitNetters and by their input. Well, there hasn't been much for the moment. That's why the whole thing looks as if four or five guys decided to do this on their own, but that was not and still is not the goal, at least not in my eyes. I try to keep it going, and so do the others who already have posted some submissions. To be frank, and I'm glad you seem to agree with me on that, I still think that to put together a LitNet Poetry anthology is an excellent idea, not so much because the Forum needs publicity but because I've read a whole lot of extremely good poems in this section ever since I joined LitNet.

The future plan? If you have the means and the power, persuade other LitNetters to participate. Let's improve the project. Let's come up with an idea of how to select the poems to be included "in the final piece" as you say. Let's enhance, improve, amend the whole thing. And if you write poetry, submit. If there's any poem a fellow LitNetter has published on here and that you simply love, submit.

I still believe in this. But frankly, if there's not more interest, more input, more enthusiasm, well, then I guess there'll never be a published anthology at all.

Hi Sam – the questions you ask are excellent. And I still haven't got the answers although I am amongst those who kicked off this project. If you have any suggestions, please please pretty please: participate! I agree with you that without more input and without more participation the project has no sense whatsoever.

You see, I've sketched a few rules for the project (cf. the first post of this thread) but merely to kick it off; they're surely not "canonical". I thought they'd be amended, discussed, improved etc. by fellow LitNetters and by their input. Well, there hasn't been much for the moment. That's why the whole thing looks as if four or five guys decided to do this on their own, but that was not and still is not the goal, at least not in my eyes. I try to keep it going, and so do the others who already have posted some submissions. To be frank, and I'm glad you seem to agree with me on that, I still think that to put together a LitNet Poetry anthology is an excellent idea, not so much because the Forum needs publicity but because I've read a whole lot of extremely good poems in this section ever since I joined LitNet.

The future plan? If you have the means and the power, persuade other LitNetters to participate. Let's improve the project. Let's come up with an idea of how to select the poems to be included "in the final piece" as you say. Let's enhance, improve, amend the whole thing. And if you write poetry, submit. If there's any poem a fellow LitNetter has published on here and that you simply love, submit.

I still believe in this. But frankly, if there's not more interest, more input, more enthusiasm, well, then I guess there'll never be a published anthology at all.

Hey, DieterM thanks for replying. Of course I am more than happy to participate. If this project does come to fruition as I hope it does, I would be miffed that I might have one poem in the anthology whereas some others have far more. If that was the case then I would rather let them have their anthology - can you understand where I'm coming from?

Sadly I'm very new here so wouldn't have much influence at all over much. With regards to my own poems I am more of a prose writer but I enjoy poetry too. I'll post one and it'd be nice to hear your thoughts on it if you'd care to read it?

As for discussing and amending poems, might it be worth choosing the best and then reposting them for open discussion? This seems sensible to me but it might be rather laborious and ultimately impractical. What do you think?

[Sam Smith]

Poem removed

[Pompey Bum]

POEM REMOVED BY AUTHOR

See below.