It breaks my heart that one of the finest poets I have ever read occupies most of our 'Undiscovered work' list. His output is prolific, sure, yet the level of quality remains astonishingly high. If for one week we all read an Esker a day (keeps the shrinks at bay) and made a comment, I think it would do us all a power of good.

Esker has been on Neopoet for over ten years and his fecund contributions have given a lot to a lot of poets. Let's give some back.

Come join us in a Modern Day Collaborative Poetry Workshop; We will collaboratively write a Japanese poem called "Renga http://www.healinglovenotes.com/renga-poetry.html"
It can be about anything.

If you desire to improve your work, request raw feedback and seriously consider every comment.

If you are just here to be told how pretty you are, we'll never interact. That will be best for both of us.

For those of you that have noticed, but figured that it wasn't any of your business, it is yours and ours ! This is to inform the uninitiated, the little icon in the black band at the top of the page is for all of the poets here at the site. Not just a few certain individuals that hold positions on the council.

An open field,
a young boy's joy:
chasing fly balls and frisbees,
stumbling in the grass,
carefree as a warm summer breeze.

I remember;
...before girls stole the spotlight.

The psychological shift from obliviousness
to excruciating self awareness
was as sudden as a slap in the face.

Wow! was I a mess!

I couldn't stop thinking about the girls
The cute ones, the pretty ones, the beautiful, and gorgeous ones,
all giggly and wiggly, and the boobs! My god, why was I such a mess.

Why do we write, why bother going through this torture to which so few of the world have any interest in at all? Eumolpus asked.
We all have different answers, except mine. I do it expecting to become a billionaire.
What are your answers?

We've all heard the saying " A picture is worth a thousand words." Well the July contest is the reverse. Write a poem about a famous painting ! 100 word minimum. Try to use vivid imagery and to also convey what the artist meant to convey in their painting. Either free verse or western classic. Click on "Contest" tab for details and have fun........stan

on the now concluded 'Meter... The Workshop'
sorry for the delay, hope they help.
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/view/19873

I copied Jane's answer when I asked her how her poetry had improved so much in just three years.

"I think Neopoet can take a fair degree of credit in helping to shape what I write today. The workshop environment helps for one thing, but reading other poets helps enormously.
We have some superb ones here.

Workshops help too, even if it's a subject you have some familiarity with, the discipline is good.

As usual there were many fine entries which also makes it tough on judging. It came down to two and the deciding factor was one of these two poems was not on subject.
Thank you all for entering and I hope you had fun in doing so.
I hope you will join me in congratulating Mark for his winning poem........stan

Ford Never Ran

Submitted by remark on Mon, 2017-06-05 02:50

Times were tough, but dad, a job he had
Fine clothing and hair, we all had lunch fare
Ten of us total and this one the target,
target of the jealous, those who didn’t care