Free Gmail

anyone want a Gmail account? thats google's new email service ..you can only get by invite right now ..and i have a handful to giveaway ..

go here to get one..

http://www.splashhall.org/blog/

login and leave a post or comment with a first and last name and email to send it to..

Get A Gmail Account ~ 3 To Be GivenAway

Suggest A Site Get A Gmail Account

Suggest a site or poetry article to hightlight here at Rollin Thunder.
Get a chance at your own Gmail Account. That's the new Google email, soon to be released to the general public.

When you email me an article about either poetry or art, I will put your name in a box and on Sunday August 29, 2004 I will draw 3 names to give a pre-release, fully usable, Gmail Account. You can send poems to be considered for inclusion but only interesting articles will get a chance at the Gmail Account.

This works similar to Boing Boing, except we are looking for wonderful poetry and art articles and news. Simply include page link [permalink] to the article, name of site, your name, so we can give you credit and your email so we can send you your Gmail Account should we draw your name. Your poetry article can be breaking news or just plain weird [we like weird] or funny. Tell your friends. Lets have fun!

Hurry! Drawing is this Sunday. Suggest A Site Get a Gmail Account

Zeus, Muse, Daughters, Wit & Charm

When you declare your muse is sleeping ..which muse might that be?

Muses
Zeus' Daughters of Wit and Charm

The Muses or Mousai are the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (sister of Hyperion and Rheia). They are often referred to as Heliconian and Pierian, to mark the seats of their earliest worship (Pieria, near Olympos and Mount Helicon in Boeotia).

They are listed by name but the specific attributes of each goddess were added by later poets:

* Kleio, history
* Euterpe, flute playing
* Thaleia, comedy
* Melpomene, tragedy
* Terpsichore, dance
* Erato, love poems
* Polymnia, sacred music
* Ourania, astrology
* Kalliope, epic poetry (she holds the highest rank of the Muses)

Kalliope attends the birth of kingly nobles and gives (or withholds) the gift of the Muses as the immortals deem fit. Mere mortals who are blessed by the Muses, can use the beauty of their song, or the grace of their dance to heal the sick and comfort the heartbroken.

One story says that a singer and poet named Thamyris challenged the Muses. He mocked them and made light of their skills. For his insolence, Thamyris was maimed and lost his memory. He could no longer remember his songs or his poems. The Muses can bestow the gift of talent and insight but they can also, viciously, revoke their blessings. King Pierus boasted that his daughters rivaled the Muses in beauty and talent, they (all nine of his daughters) were turned into magpies.

The Muses attend the festivals on Olympos and entertain and inspire the other gods with their wit and charm. Apollo puts aside his bow and plays the lyre as the Graces join in the dance of the immortals.

hhmmm ..is poetry an event at the Greek Olympics?

Creative Help Wanted

Join our team of creative, energitic, dedicated SplashHost. SplashHall Poetry is a 3 year old online grass roots poetry community and we continue to grow daily.

We pride ourselves with our down home, your family at Splash ambience. We are a free community and intend to stay that way. Our main goal is to support the art of poetry and have fun doing it.

If you have a good knowledge of poetry, able to critique and review other poets work and help them grow, we would like to talk with you.

You will join in a wide variety of creative poetic activities. You will work at your own pace both as an individual and a team player. You will also be eligible for most of our awards and competitions. Presently all work is on a volunteer basis.

Currently we are looking to expand our staff at both our poetry boards SplashHall Poetry and at our fast growing poetry blog Rollin Thunder.

Please email me at cafeRg@themountainsplash.com, with your qualifications.

All inquiries will be responded to.

Fresh Up At SplashHall Poetry

~*~ New At Splash ~*~

Hi Ya'll

Fresh up today is our new dark/goth forum for posting and sharing the other side of the light. Eerie Poetic Attic Welcome into the darkness. Meander among the macabre. Stroll through the aisles of the arcane. Ogle the occult. Enter our magical poetry world. Check it out here.

Congratulations goes to SplashHost of the Month Honestly for her gracious service to splash. She also co-host our popular and growing Erotica Poetry event in VPchat Saturday nights. And to SpotLight on a SplashPoet goes to Petro. He is an awesome writer of both short stories and poetry. Thank you both for your diligent support and participation at SplashHall Poetry.

BiG {{{SplasH}}} Welcome new members -em, w3ni3, southerngirl241, Micky, klhmonahan, AirHead3745, AlexShark, alison branker, SCSccp, wordwaymike, aubrianna, Poet, daimyo23, cheyennewolfe, anglhrt23, moman336, memphistic, mick, slipped away of the past 30 days. Please find your spot on "The Porch" and make yourself at home. We looking forward to sharing and getting to know you. Please don't be shy now, you're family at Splash!

New Poet Laureate ~ USA Ted Kooser a poet from the Great Plains. "Ted Kooser is a major poetic voice for rural and small town America. Ted is the first poet laureate chosen from the Great Plains," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said. "His verse reaches beyond his native region to touch on universal themes in accessible ways." Read More at Rollin Thunder of Ted Kooser including one of his poems.

Speaking of Rollin Thunder, are you blogging yet? Blogging is one of the fastest growing trends online for writers of all sorts. View Our Blog- Rollin Thunder Here. Blogging is real easy to get started. You can have your own blog up and running in minutes. You don't need to know any coding or html. Blogging is a snydicated community within community, often referred to as the "Blogosphere". Check it out at Blogger.Com, own by the good people at Google. We may even exchange links with you as a partner blogger (its what bloggers do in the great blogosphere).

Suggest A Site. Suggest a site or poetry article to hightlight at Rollin Thunder. Simply include page link [permalink] to the article, name of site, your name and email. Your poetry article can be breaking news or just plain weird [we like weird] or funny. Tell your friends. Lets have fun. A great way to spread the news or announce your new site or promote your poetry.

Click to Submit.

Places of Interest I would like to recommend for writers and poets looking for reviews, particularly if you have a blog, is Mick Arran's LitBlogs. Tell him cafeRg sent you. If you want to keep up with the latest news of poetry and poets around the world visit Rus Bowden's Poetry & Poets in Rags. For you multimedia fans be sure to surf on over to George Aguilar's Cin(E)-Poetry.

3 Ways to Help Support Poetry & SplashHall. Showing your support helps & encourages other poets to enhance their creative. You also help SplashHall Poetry help promote poets, like yourself, and poetry. SplashHall has had a web presence for 3 years now and we continue to grow both in membership and activities, workshops, challenges and the art of poetry.

Show your love for poetry and SplashHall by copying and pasting the following html codes into your websites and email. You will also be helping new poets find a new home to share and read poetry.

I'm A Friend of SplashHall Poetry

I'm A Friend of Rollin Thunder

...and if you need a great host for your website or blog, try the hosting service we have used for over 2 years now. I personally highly recommend them. Among many other features you will get 1000 mb space, 5 gig of bandwidth a DAY (that's 150 gig a month), and their customer service is the best i have seen, help through their support forums, live chat and/or a toll free tech number. Only $7.77 per month. Check them out today. PowWeb Hosting Service.

Well, my friend my fingers are getting tired, LoL, as always we encourage your suggestions and questions. Let me know if you find this newletter helpful and enjoyable. And how we can make it even better for you?

SpotLight On A SplashPoet ~ Petro

I am going to do this a little different this month ..as requested by your peers at SplashHall Poetry ..so even though you didn't ask, I see nothing wrong with being flexible at Splash ~ Yo deserve it Petro. Afterall, arent we all Bohemians? And starting this month your name and poem will be highlighted not only at the Poets Cafe, but also at Rollin Thunder and Splash Poetry Cafe. Our RSS/ATOM syndicated sites.

Congratulations Petro

Your ~ In The Spotlight #10 At Splash

A Cup Of Feathers

A slow falling feather landed on the ground.
I couldn't tell. Was it a remnant of furious
preening or a sudden mishap?

Of the latter. In my mind I could see
a mistaken pigeon pursuing polished glass.
I picked it up, placed it inside my paper cup.

People don't talk about these things.
What did it matter? It was a cast-off
sort of thing. Garbage for the collector.

I looked up through the grimy boughs
and diesel coated leaves and thought
about my home-here beneath the trees.

Cups of feathers all around. Were they
useful? Perhaps I could make a pillow,
a place to lay my head.

Or, a gossamer wall to hide behind.
Soften and muffle the jerking sounds
of... nothing said.

Wait a moment... see...
...another one drifts down.

© 2004 petro

Get Syndicated! Get Activated! Get Splashivated

Searching For Ted Kooser ~ a poet laureate

Today is a dark day for poetry. Rus Bowden of Poetry & Poets in Rags broke the story at SplashHall Poetry late last night. I figured this is great, I will cover this story for the next couple days. After all this is a great event, isn't it?

Well that was late last night and after sending emails to a few blogging friends and suggesting it as a story for the good people at BoingBoing, supposing the holy grail for the Great Blogosphere, I went to bed.

This morning I got up at 5:30 am, fixed a cup of my organic coffee, turned on my computer and opened up my new email toy Mozilla Thunderbird and checked my email for any response to my announcement of our, USA, new Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. There was one out of about twelve, a young lady from Wales, Ivy Alvarez, who seemed as enthused as me. I figured the others would come shortly. Next I opened up my usual two "tabbed browsers" Mozilla Firefox and MyIE2 now known as "Maxthon" and began my update search for news on Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.

First I went to BoingBoing, nothing there 'sigh', there was a story about crapping, DVD's, Olympic brand-whoring and Big backpacks are bad news, I guess all more important and interesting than a new poet laureate from the Great Plains, the Heart of America so-to-speak. Next I went toUSA Today nothing there either, just the usual ragged-over news we hear everyday. Although after doing a search at Google I did find they stuck it in the corner of their book section, you know the section right? um yea right. Next I went to The Academy of American Poets, they had a oneliner way down near the bottom of the page, "Nebraskan Ted Kooser named next Poet Laureate." and a link to a short bio of Ted Kooser. Again, I guess a new poet laureate is even very important to one of the largest poetry sites on the net.

Among several other major news and poetry sites which had nothing. I repeat nothing! about this man. This great honor and accomplishment in poetry. I remembered Rus had said AbleMuse had a good discussion going on about Ted Kooser. They sure did, it appeared he was one of their favorite poets. Yet not one mention that Kooser is the new poet laureate. In fact besides supposing being one of their favorite poets, if you entered the Able Muse Boards from the home page, one would be hard pressed to even find Ted Kooser there.

So what's my point here. It's like this.. "Why is such a great art and literary form so minimal," in our great american culture? Barely even being recognized by poets and poetry topics themselves. Why aren't our schools making poetry a required curriculum beginning in grade school. Not only is it a beautiful form of art, but students and teachers alike could use it as a great learning tool. Word Power. Creativity in speech and writing. No wonder american students are turned off by the our learning process. No wonder kids turn to the streets for their creative knowledge. When adults, including the websites mentions above and many I searched and didn't mention, don't even make art their curriculum. Let alone, we don't even acknowledge a great honor as Poet Laureate and the average american man that gets to wear it's title.

Congratulations Mr Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate! This surely is a dark day for american culture and those who profess poetry. However, Mr Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate USA, this is a grand day for you. I am inspired to search your truth and talent.

Nebraskan Ted Kooser Named Poet Laureate

Great Plains poet Ted Kooser of Nebraska will be the next poet laureate of the United States.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington will officially announce the appointment Thursday.

"Ted Kooser is a major poetic voice for rural and small town America. Ted is the first poet laureate chosen from the Great Plains," Billington said. "His verse reaches beyond his native region to touch on universal themes in accessible ways."

The poet laureate's job carries with it few specific duties, to allow the writer to work on their own projects. The post includes an office at the Library of Congress, a $35,000 salary and an obligation to deliver and organize readings. Previous poets laureate include Robert Frost, Gwendolyn Brooks and Rita Dove.

"I really want to throw myself into this and do what I can to further people's interest in poetry," Kooser said Wednesday. "I see part of my job as being a promoter of poetry of all kinds."

Ted has written 10 collections of poetry, most recently "Delights & Shadows," published this year.

Of his work, 1980 collection, "Sure Signs," received the Society of Midland Authors Prize for the best book of poetry by a Midwestern writer published in that year. His 2000 collection, "Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison," won the 2001 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry.

A native of Iowa, Ted, a poet at age 18, graduated from Iowa State University in 1962 and earned his master's in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1968. He is a visiting professor and teaches writing in the university's English Department.

"What I think poetry can do is give people fresh ways to look at the world. I attempt in my poems to take ordinary things and look at them in a new light. I am dedicated to writing poetry that people can understand."

Kooser, 65, will replace Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Gluck in the one-year position.

Ted is married to Lincoln Journal Star Editor Kathleen Rutledge, begins his duties in the fall.

Previous Poet Laureate:

Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/

A Poets View ~ Series of Perspectives VII

by Ivy Alvarez

Being a writer of poetry is rarely financially rewarding, not to mention maddening and terrible. Compared with other writing media, it does not garner the same excitement as a new film or fiction blockbuster, nor does it have the same cachet.

While many might protest, citing a current resurgence of interest ('What about slams?' they might ask. 'What about all these poet laureates?'), poetry still feels marginalised. So rare does a book of poetry break through to the Best Seller glass ceiling of novels and non-fiction that it's a big deal when it does. It's an aberration, and people must call attention to it.

But there is a good side to being overlooked.

You have freedom to create what you like, with no mind as to what's sexy, or hot, or what the public wants at this very moment. Very few eyes are on you. Anonymity is sometimes delicious. There is less pressure, and even then, it is of a different sort, usually self-generated.

Writing poetry doesn't answer to deadlines, or agents, or fans, or three-picture movie deals. Imagine the sort of poetry that would result if it did.

The compulsion to write poetry, like any creative impulse, is inexplicable and ...well, Sylvia Plath said it best when she wrote:

The blood jet is poetry,
There is no stopping it.

~*~

Ivy Alvarez is the author of two chapbooks, Food for Humans (reprint forthcoming) and catalogue: life as tableware, available from The Private Press [theprivatepress at zoo dot net dot au]. Visit Ivy Is Here for more writing thoughts.

International Festival on VideoPoetry in Buenos Aires

I've recently been invited to this new festival and they are looking for videopoetry works and installations. Their director writes,"The eye is an asteroid floating symmetrically along the boundaries of the brain galaxy. A planet requiring a geographical outline filled with poetic flora and fauna in which mankind takes in air as a blessing.

The ear is like a labyrinth funnel which goes twice into the human cavity. A corner which calls for a Minotauric Ariadnes to sing, to speak, to blow winds of echoing, to remain silent; where all that is possible lives and even what has not yet been imagined.

In a society remotely directed by screens, take them over suddenly and turn them into means of artistic transmission, electronic enriching, audiovisual poetry.

Javier Robledo

Director

Sounds pretty neat to me! -G
Here is the rest of the info: We invite artists with works related to words, language, letters or symbols to participate in our Festival, sending material till 30th. August, 2004

Festival is supported, among others by Secretaría de Cultura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, IMPA-La Fábrica Ciudad Cultural, Fundación Centro de Estudios Brasileros, Embajada de Chile, Centro Cultural de España, Vórtice Argentina, Asociación de Poetas Argentinos, and have international guests.

Organization: Videobardo, file of videopoetry founded in 1996 with the purpose of disseminating, studying, exchanging and building a file of videopoetry. It has in its files over 130 videopoems written by authors from several countries and it has held 25 exhibitions at museums and cultural centres in Argentina and abroad.

For further information see call at our Web site: www.videopoesia.com info@videopoesia.com

Congratulations Honestly ~ SplashHost of the Month

Please join me and congratulate our Senior SplashHost Honestly, voted as SplashHost of the Month August 2004. She has been with SplashHall from the beginning and has been a most gracious to all who have joined and visited SplashHall Poetry. She has contributed both her time and money to Splash. She has even put up with me ..L0L ..now thats deserving in itself. Congratulations Baby!!

Love ya
Rg

Take the SPAM Poem Challenge!

Howdy peeps...this is Michael R. here.....have you ever looked in your bulk mail folder, and noticed that every 5 or 6 spams emails or so, there's one with a string of 'random' words in the subject line?.......well, I have....and it occurred to me some time back that this would make good fodder (source material) for a collage poem........no, I haven't actually done it yet BUT I thought that YOU folks might like to give it a try......below is the list of spam mail subject lines that I have saved........your mission: edit/delete/repeat/reorder them....then post the results on this thread/blog entry (you can ignore the numbers if you wish)....good luck....here we go:


dilatory sawfish
trombone tea parties defined by 1
reverie maximilian bauxite
decelerate
looking glass widows over 24
authenticate satiric
accession
clodhopper 52 midwives
ball bearing 973 biceps
fordham already harpsichord agglutinate
carmela battery
industrial complex 819 looking glasses
photon 524 impresarios
nectar employ bomb
severalty absorption
photon 4698 bubble baths
asteroid 682 dahlias
submarine cowards from 550
cargo bay 78 ruffians
conform accept tailor
somnambulist 0 trombones
hurst macroscopic covary
football team 20 mastadons
beyond 0 because
alchemist 397 tenors
expend component dailey aba
devise canis incurrer
class action suit 369 ribbons
short order cook widows living with 85
alongside
modulus opiate
mephistopheles culinary furthermore
swan kahn seriatim
alliance anonymous
cuprous thorstein theocracy
economic baroque richards
carmela postmaster affair poesy
nottingham antisemite
satellite 16 guardian angels
avogadro
busboy homonym
rockaway collect
wedding dress waifs near
antacid anguish ketch vocalic
chamfer spiro bankrupt
Moom diagram
indiscriminate whoa swiss
parking lot 4119 hands
support group 709 dissidents
luxury chimney squeegee
retrofitted streetcar
soul rapid recession
cowboy 9 trombones
perplex cyanamid
scooby snack 02 swamps
dietary fiancee hutchison
prime minister 2857 gonads
ballerina 00 mastadons
cactus plebeian pont
dreadful bobbie
employer venturi
line dancer taxidermists living with
bullish cornmeal
necromancer 873 maestros
destroy tambourine brash
adenoma petersburg trade begrudge
omphalos dissidents over 76
always satisfied idiosyncratic
reactor 0221 philosophers
sylvia whose dolt
demon cowards living with
louvre blockage caprice
turnip
square, at the end
judge trombones near
maw acknowledge axle harvard

A Poets View ~ Series of Perspectives VI

A few lines from a writer
by Tony Word

An article, on what? Am I capable of writing such a thing? I could try.. you know, writing has changed my life, for the better. I can not say however, that I have been writing my whole life. I only started when I was nineteen years old. Through circumstances in my control- though terribly executed, I gained first-hand knowledge, of how the art of writing (poetry to be exact) can be an effective tool in communicating with others, how someone could feel about a certain thing. This person in my case, let it all be known!

I think about one of my favorite artists currently: Michelle Branch, and I hear her music, and she tells so much of herself. Seemingly, the musical sounds all blends around a feeling that someone (like me) could have. Like somehow, music for her, is my poetry- to communicate with others, what am I feeling. To me, it is quite strong of a decision to display such emotion, and be at risk of being a fool in the image of others. But an artist (me and others) know the risks, knows the vulnerabilities that can exist when you express yourself creatively. For me as well, I communicate better when I am writing. Shy, yet has a quiet expressive personality- that is me to a very certain extent.

An artist's job is to make someone think, make someone think about love, other subjects and stuff like that. A strong viewpoint: an artist has to develop a movie, create a scene, mix those ingredients that will stay with someone, to grab that person's attention that will make them come back again. Don't forget that artists are their own business, money maker, and promoter. They have to do what they have to do, to make money, so people can continue to see their films, buy that painting, eat that food. Me, I am somewhat a businessman and the business all in one. Seems that these days, I do a rather lousy job of promoting my business, but that is here and there. All artists though, seek to express themselves, to make people think. That is the number one job of an artist, to make someone think. And that is why I became an artist, to make people think about what they are doing on an everyday basis. And I love it so much. Every artist, loves to get people talking you could say. And I hope to do the same as every other great artist who has lived, and who are living today.

Tony Word is a poet and writer, is a member of SplashHall Poetry. You can read more of Tony at his blog at Tony Words. Thanks Tony.

Sunday's Poetry Quotes

Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots. ~Carl Sandburg

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.
The soul that knows it not, knows no release
From little things;
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings.
~Amelia Earhart


By the excellence of his work the workman is a neighbor.
By selling only what he would not despise to own the salesman is a neighbor.
By selling what is good his character survives his market. ~Wendell Berry

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
~Edward Fitzgerald "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
~William Butler Yeats

I was born to catch dragons in their dens
And pick flowers
To tell tales and laugh away the morning
To drift and dream like a lazy stream
And walk barefoot across sunshine days.
~James Kavanaugh "Sunshine Days and Foggy Nights

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be.
The last of life, for which the first was made.
~Robert Browning "'Rabbi Ben Ezra"