http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs.html Gotpoetry - News for poets. Place to write. en-us Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:51:34 GMT 1440 CPG-Nuke Dragonfly GotPoetry.com News http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.gotpoetry.com/images/autoheader/logo-slogan.gif http://www.gotpoetry.com/ http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1711.htmlcold.. because I know I am alive.. I really love winter.. I love the light... sometimes I wake in the morning.. in that halfdream state, and I feel so in love with life. I am sure it's related to the light, that cold, bright light that you only get in winter, it's so big. Amazing that for all the sun in summer the biggest, whitest, lightest light is in winter. We don't really get snow at sea level here, but snow light has to be the best in the world... there is nothing like it...... In another life, I loved waking in a blue white snowlight room, you know without looking that it is snowing, you can hear the silence that only snow can make....Thursday, July 03, 2008 (07:51:34)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1710.htmlhttp://michaelsalinger.blogspot.com/Wednesday, July 02, 2008 (14:32:37)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1708.htmlTo read more on this topic, click hereTuesday, July 01, 2008 (05:40:39)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1707.htmlAs I was reading my email today from my Care2 account, I came across a site that just blew my mind. The headlines read;“Food NOT Bombs Volunteers Arrested For Feeding The Homeless.” As I read on I discovered that the local businesses and residents thought the homeless were an eye sore and needed to be removed from the premises. So then I discover that in cities all across America, it is illegal to feed the hungry in a public place. My first question was, where the hell else do you feed the homeless? They don’t have a home to feed them in. And if they’re such an eye sore and a nuisance, gee, why don’t business owners give them a job, paying those very same homeless enough in wages so that they can afford to live in a home and actually feed themselves? What a concept, huh? Why don’t they look at feeding them as a company, might be some good press you think? Would even provide them with a hefty tax write off! Instead they choose to cause conflict, calling the police and eliciting the mayor’s signature to pass laws that make it illegal for these people to eat? Excuse me? Isn’t that just a little unconstitutional? What is this country coming to, when cities and states pass laws that make it illegal for volunteers to feed the homeless in public places? What about the homeless that get arrested for eating in public places? Where the hell are they supposed to eat? Up a fucking tree? It’s bad enough that they’re homeless, but to put them in jail for eating in public? Why do we see so many without homes and in the streets, eating in public places? Because the country is so hell bent on war, jails and prison, it has not taken a look around at all the FAMILIES it made homeless in the corporate push to move our factories and manufacturing plants out of the country into child labor regions where 10 year olds work for 14 hours a day to make products Americans cannot afford to buy. All in the name of the ALMIGHTY DOLLAR! Had to increase that gross profit margin by 10% over the last five years, is what they said. Why? Can those who actually collect that money ever spend it all in the time they have to live on this earth? They could not spend it all if they lived 3 lives continuously. Do they really think they are going to take it with them? “In a Universe of Justice the Eyes of Truth are ALWAYS WATCHING YOU”-Enigma. The day will come, and I don’t mean next millennia when these hungry people being arrested in the streets will be the very people that balk at seeing the hungry and homeless fed in the streets. Times are changing as they always do, and power is shifting as it always does, and then in defeat and stupefied they will wonder what the hell went wrong? Greed buys you nothing but cold, lonely death. You begin to LIVE when you begin to GIVE! With that said, I’ll step down off my soapbox, and provide you with the following bulletin that I think shines like the sun never has: You can make a big difference by having everyone you know send in A DOLLAR FOR PEACE. Food Not Bombs is as busy as ever. We are growing rice and yams in Africa, starting a movement to provide free medical assistance called Healthcare Not Warfare, organizing numerous actions for peace, social justice and animal rights, working for the release of our volunteers who are jailed in the Philippines and most importantly we are feeding thousands of hungry people every week in hundreds of communities all over the world. When the U.S. government failed to respond to Katrina, Food Not Bombs organize bus loads of food and volunteers to head down to the Gulf Region to feed the survivors. We were feeding people in New Orleans less than three days after the storm hit. Our taxes were busy funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while Food Not Bombs volunteers were freeing people from attics and providing them with three hot meals a day. According to the city of New Orleans and the disaster relief agencies in the Gulf States Food Not Bombs was the only group coordinating food to the survivors on a daily basis. We continue to feed people made homeless by Katrina. Imagine if a million people send in one dollar just think how much more Food Not Bombs can do! For the past 26 years Food Not Bombs has been feeding people in hundreds of communities all over the world absolutely free of charge. Food Not Bombs has organized and fed many actions including peace rallies, anti-globalizations protests and animal rights actions. We also organize Homes Not Jails actions (to house the homeless), plant community gardens through Food Not Lawns, provide free medical help through Healthcare Not Warfare, and share information and music through the free radio movement. We provide food to the homeless and hungry, at actions in support of Native American and aboriginal land struggles and we feed people defending the earth. We also donate food to day care centers, and the families of workers on strike. New Food Not Bombs groups are starting every day all over the world. There are hundreds of chapters collecting, cooking and sharing free food. We are also organizing gatherings to investigate new ways to bring peace and social justice to our world. Food Not Bombs is offering you the opportunity to support this magical movement by sending in just ONE DOLLAR! It is a great time to stop underestimating the power of one. Give it a try and pass on the word. For just one dollar you can help build a world based on peace and justice. Send your dollar or how ever many dollars you want to: Food Not Bombs P.O. Box 424 Arroyo Seco, NM 87514 USA I have checked them out and they are legitimate! Below is a link to their site, check them out for youself! http://www.foodnotbombs.net/dollar_for_peace.html Let’s feed some hungry, homeless people in or out of the public eye in the name of FREEDOM, LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! Blessed Be! )O( DragonBlueTuesday, July 01, 2008 (04:26:00)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1706.htmlLet me just say first that you are not alone as 1.3 million women in the United States alone are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. Your abuser might be making it impossible to escape him by preventing you from accessing resources, getting you fired from your job, so that you feel you are forced to choose between staying in an abusive relationship with him or facing economic hardship and possibly extreme poverty and homelessness. Our abusers are very good at isolating us from family and friends so that they are able to abuse us and we seem to have no way out. But you really do have a way out. You may need to leave like a ‘thief’ in the night, or while he is away at work and believes you to be as well no matter how you leave, the key here is you need to get away from him. Keep in mind you should never return once you leave; for the abuser will be angry that you escaped his grasp. If you have children, they need to see that the behavior of the abuser is completely and totally unacceptable. Protect them by breaking the chain of abuse before it is passed onto another generation of victims. Find help by contacting the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-SAFE) or visit the library to find resources on money management and domestic violence. You will find help, only if you seek it and you may have to ask more than once. There is help out there, but you must ask to receive it, for your abuser will only abuse you as long as you allow him to. You are unique, special, loving and beautiful in ways that he can never be. Close your ears to that internal dialog that has only his words for you to hear. Remember that thoughts and feelings are NOT facts. That is not to say that your thoughts and feelings are not valid. They are very valid and the one reason you have to hold onto them in a positive light so that you will not have to live in fear ever again. Facts are facts. Thoughts and feelings are your perception of those facts. Remember who and what you are, that you are a spirit of light and energy and have an inalienable right to be treated with dignity and respect. As a human being, you have a right to live in love and light without the humiliation, pain and shame of abuse. You do not own that shame and humiliation. Your abuser does. Give it back to him, so that he can take care of his own dirty laundry. You are important and needed as a human being on this planet for your input, and the effect you have on others, no matter what that might be, as you do have value. I like to look at it this way. If you took a crisp, new $100 bill and wadded it up, spit on it, threw it on the ground, stomped on it, rubbed it into the dirt, and buried it for a day. When you came back the next day to dig it up, it would still be worth $100. The value retained no matter how you abused that $100. So are you worthy and valuable no matter how many times he has abused you, knocked you down, called you foul names and rubbed your face in the dirt. Like the willow tree, you can be BENT but never BROKEN. I have written a little poem that may help you when your hours are darkest, I hope it helps to lift your spirits just reading it: Remember the Blue of Light When you feel there is no hope at all, That all you are made of is ready to fall. When everyone is wearing coats of lies, When truth and justice seem contrite … Remember the blue of light. That is the brightest in the night. The universe will and does unfold as only it can And no matter what, on your feet you’ll land. When your spirit can do naught but scream. And your nightmares become the dream. The coats will win their game of hate And love is not part of all they take. Remember the blue of light. That is the brightest in the night. The universe will and does unfold as only it can And no matter what, on your feet you’ll land. Love is what will pull you through. Love is what will allow you to continue. When they throw you to the lions den Expecting you to swallow deceit again … Remember the blue of light. That is the brightest in the night. The universe will and does unfold as only it can And no matter what, on your feet you’ll land. I have written you this letter in the hopes that it helps you to finally decide to leave his maniacal madness of abuse behind. You will learn to love yourself again and smile and laugh with joy at just being alive. Remember, ‘to thine own self be true’. I love you unconditionally. Always, )O( DragonBlue ps. Here is a link to a site you might find very helpful: National Committee Against Domestic Violence Author notes I have lived with abuse my entire life. Abuse comes in many flavors; sexual, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual to name a few. From the time I was five years old when it started and it did not end until about 4 years ago, (I am now 43 years old) when at the end of my rope, begging for light to be gifted into my life as I was homeless, penniless and ready to die, I was able to break the chain of abuse. I left my abusers, every one of them. But because I was so numb to the abuse having experienced it all my life, I failed to see all the red flags that were screaming at me through every relationship. I did not trust my own intuition. I also never backed down, and refused to become the slave and door mat they required of me, so I was abused some more. All they did was cause a fury to rise that they were definately afraid of, though I fear my fury more. I was/am afraid I would kill them before I knew what I had done. They all tried to break my spirit and take that light that shines from behind my eyes, but all they managed to take was my possessions and then they stold my children. Though it took three on one to overcome me. I still fight daily with the courts and my children's father, to have them returned to hearth, as he continues to abuse them the same way he did me. Abuse needs to be a crime as in a felony class 4 or 3, and not tolerated at all by anyone, as it breeds hatred and bigotry. The saddest part of all, is after all they had done to take my spirit from me; the courts, the cops, and these men with a black widow spider, all blamed and framed me for having done it to myself. Because I defended and removed myself and my children from harm, I was incarcerated for 60 days, and seperated without contact from my children for 468 long, lonely, despair filled days. They won the battle, but I will win this war. Love & Light! )O( DragonBlueMonday, June 30, 2008 (04:22:00)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1705.htmlI considered posting this to a forum but I'm not really looking for a discussion. I just want to state my feelings on this "on paper". And I also need a blog entry for my daily journal blog Left Wing Liberal Commie Agitator. I figured this would do double duty to post there and to start my blog here. This blog will only include poetry and writing related items. So, back to the original subject. I am a "semi-professional poet". I qualify that and put it in quotes because I have featured many times; I have been paid to perform; I have been paid for my poetry. But I would be hard-pressed to pay for a family dinner with the total amount of money I have earned as a poet. I belong to Artemis Rising, a hard-core critique writer's group that has questioned why I am willing to post my salable poetry freely on the internet, on both gotpoetry and FanStory. I have seen other poets here pull poetry because they may, some time in the future, have some of it published. The other members of my writer's group would agree for the most part, and I understand their concerns. But they are not mine. To me, having my poetry read is more important than earning money for it. It thrills me when someone pops over from the got poetry Page Slams and comments on a poem. I love it when someone gives me a 10 on gotpoetry or six stars on FanStory. It means the poem is being read and appreciated. What more could a poet want in a society where "rhyme doesn't pay," or free verse either. I would love to earn a living writing full time. But I already made one big transition a few years ago from computer programmer to classroom teacher, and I found that that move improved my poetry manyfold, giving me so may real life experiences through contact with the angst of teens. (I once told a student who said it was "an emergency" and insisted on going to the bathroom in the middle of a test that of course it was, she's a teenager, her whole life is an emergency.) That doesn't mean I wouldn't like more of my poems published in print magazines, or even online 'zines. I am planning to submit some poems to journals this summer, and hoping to be published if not paid. If those journals want first publication rights, I'll delete the poem from both sites, but only that one poem. I'm capable of doing that one at a time. I doubt all of my poems will ever be published, but in the meantime, I'll know they are being read. If you want to read my poems, you can find My Poems of gotpoetry or My Portfolio on FanStorySunday, June 29, 2008 (14:25:00)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1703.htmlMy first stop whenever I go to a mall is the bookshop. I like to spend my time there going through the books rather than shopping. I get so much of pleasure going through the books and most of the times, I go sit on a chair and read. Reading and flipping through the pages is like nibbling on my favorite chocolate . Last weekend, I happened to go through Shel Silverstein's 'Don't Bump The Glump'. Though I read it a few years back, I enjoyed reading it again!!! Another favorite of mine now is the Malory Towers series I am reading now by Enid Blyton. I feel like going to a boarding school after reading those books. Those girls seem to have so much of fun especially at night - parties, midnight feast!!!! I don't know which book I will read next.Sunday, June 29, 2008 (09:57:38)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1702.htmlI am a puppet under the shadow of fingers. In the world of the mad, the sane are the insane. Besides rusty moist vaginas, he also enjoys brutal and technical ones. Music is a vaginal crevice created by naturally progressive erosion and curious exploration. He is I, and I am Xyopig. Enter my sexually Dadaistic wet dream. When you are this overwhelming, you can afford to not be arsed. The spilled estrogen and testosterone mixtures must have caused a negative reaction when it came to this one, with acute ambivalence being only one of many chronic side-effects. Dripping with irony, her name is Ginger. If this creature had two lives, I’d use a torture pear of anguish on one of them, and pray the lesson would be learnt by the second. A fair level of precocity, with all the negative connotations attached, presides in this here sordid soul, which goes by the name of Pandita.Saturday, June 28, 2008 (17:21:19)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1701.htmlyour were always quiet, surveying your world with a keen eye. You had the situation sewn up long before the rest of us, and in your youth you ruled, no matter that you were a miniscule 7 lbs. the dogs never had a chance. When I was under the weather you were there eyes boring into me. Nurse Amber. We will miss you Amber, the smallest and mightiest of our household. Sweet goodnight. 6/21/89-6/26/08Friday, June 27, 2008 (03:57:22)http://www.gotpoetry.com/Blogs/display/mode=display/id=1700.htmlHello every one , summer's here and i'm boooredd! I wanna start writing non-rhyming poems other than haiku's , i'm scared it won't turn out so well! and i don't even have a topic! so this is to all you pros... please help!!! tips!! i need TIPS!! -desperate 4 tips: pragyaThursday, June 26, 2008 (13:14:04)