check out link

Interesting link
Several of my friends
I'm So Proud


http://www.ny1.com/content/118669/new-book-features-work-of-39-n-j--poets

WEDNESDAY POETRY PROMPT #87 (WHY I BEGAN TO WRITE POETRY?)

For this week's prompt, write a poem about why you started writing poetry. You can be literal, or you can create an elaborate myth. You can be very specific, or you can be vague.


http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/2010/05/05/WednesdayPoetryPrompts087.aspx


Why I began to write poetry?


A 6th grade school assignment
When my soul believed
In love and laughter
I was asked to open my eyes about Viet Nam,
And comment on it
When I searched my soul,
And my eyes did see
I felt torn, and tortured
I learned of the horror
I learned of the deceit
I wished for World Peace
And I wrote this:
Peace and War

Peace and war don’t go together,
For one is the opposite side.

If you have peace here,
You’ll have ware over there
Why? Just why, can’t there be
Peace and Love all over the World?

‘Cause if there was peace and love,
Over the World, A very many men
Would not be dead....

(Ellen Cernek- Dedicated to Miss Palaza
First poem 6th grade 1971)
Ms Palaza asked me to stay after class
Handed me a blank book and a new pen
“Whatever you do in life, don’t stop writing.”

I have become addicted to pen and paper
I have worn my heart upon my sleeve
I have had private therapy battles
I have explored the inner to become the outer
I have created places and characters
I have been baring my soul and performing emotional seppuku
Upon paper ever since.