to our poets

For everyone thinking about entering our 2011 poetry contest, this is for you...

Free Advice

by G. Bennett Perry

Keep off the cap! Don’t throw it away. Poems are like pictures, they capture thoughts instead of fleeting moments.

So what if your poems rhyme and your stories are predictable… don’t throw them away.

Share with us what is on your mind, let us learn from what you write.

Don’t deprive us of what is so important these days…the written word.

We can interpret it any way we choose, we can assume, we can complain, we can worry, we can be forced to think hard about something, we can enjoy, we can wish we’d said that, we can feel what you felt when you penned it.

But please don’t cap your pen and go back to your nine-to-five job! We all will miss out, and so will you. You will never know how we feel about your works, you will never know how good or bad you made us feel, you will never know what it means to touch someone with the written word, unless you share what you write with us.

Keep off the cap, and let the words continue to flow. We will all be the benefactors.

Too many of us conceal our deepest, proudest thoughts behind a wall of doubt, and our inspirational moments lie dormant at a time when all mankind could benefit.