Is It time?
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Is It time?I been here for some time I have spoken on alot of you different issues. I have had run ins with a few poets here. Yet though in all my views have always remained stout my respect towards others have always been there. Those of you that I have commented and rated on I feel are clear and helpful. This I have always done here. I was told when I got here that I would be paid if my poem got into the 1st Anthology book. I never was. I was also told How this site cared about it's poets so much that they would recitfy things that went wrong. Over the years I have see mutible of poets leave here. Only when things got so bad here was no longer any out. Things should be stopped before everyone starts to leave but the game is the same the players differ from time to time. Most of the Poets I know have gone to greener pastures including me. I started writing because I had a voice. I wanted to know if I was good enough in my craft that I could call myself a poet. Most to all of you poets that read my work seem to agree with that statement. Or your just blowing smoke up my behind. Either way I have wrote steady here for some time I have made and done challeneges here for some time. I am so thankful for you all that help me grow over these last few years. You have given me strength to over come health issues to start a new life and be a part of a group that both challenged me and drove me to my best. I thank you so much for those things. Yet I have concluded I doubt I will place another poem on this site or any other without it being a challenge from someone else or I having a message from one and all. I only talked down about this site when the facts stated to me that I would NEVER Be compensated as promised for my contrubution to thier book. I started defying the status quo when I saw poets post nasty blogs or statements in the forum, and the chat and finally on Youtube videos. This was once a great place for poets I remembered sharing a huge amount of talents. I remember hours of kidding around in the chat rooms. Now saddly thats all gone. I wish I could bring back this place to its glory it had. I wished with all my heart we could treat each other with some respect and be able to have the courage to say what we want without being villinfied for our opinions. I don't know if it could happen at 21st or Living Poetic or any other place I have seen so far. All I do know is the time that I have been here I learned that when we banded together to create something for all we had a chance to change things we had a way to do the things we wanted. That was great times. Now Everyone either are too scared of the owners to speak out or they don't feel like they could justify the time it would take to work together. Whatever the case would be. It saddens me to know that we have placed our hopes of publishing ourselves or even making a childhood dream be the responsibility of others and not us. We are poets all having a voice all having a way to express that voice. So why do we rely on others to do so much. We do this in our religion we do this in or day to day work we do this in so many aspects in our lives. Tell me when are we going to do something for ourselves and become the poets and the songwriters and the story tellers we were born to be. I have started a blog called Lost Leaders the premise was to create a group that will eagerly challenge each other to do thier best. At the same time work to find way to market not only their work but work of poetry as a whole to the general public. This is not a get rich quick scheme by any means. If or when I get compensated it would be smaller then any poet I work with. Done in pecentages not in you paying me. The marketing the organization would be the sole responsibility of the group. I have created the idea and I don't work for free but this is too much work for one person. It always has been. I need help from those that wish to get something from thier work. We need to work together. If I am guilty of anything other then being opinionated or crass it is to find a better out come for everyone one not just me. In order for me to get where I need to get I need to be. I have to help you get to where you want to first. You may think I am blowing smoke up your behind. But ask around look at my work. Talk to me one on one and then decide for yourself. Don't let others who have hidden agendas behind them be the ones you look to for answers. Reseach for yourself have the courage to take a stand. Right or wrong you can do it. We have been fed for years now that we can't do anything but posting poems or publishing work if we did not pay for it ourselves or being robbed from our craft. When do we stop listening to the whispers of lies from those that only wish to profit from when we have that power in our hand right now. Mark Twain had a fallout with the professors at Oxford University after his first two books. They demanded that every publishing house close thier doors to his work. Instead of hiding he bought his own printing press and created his work. He stuggled in money for the rest of his life but He had a voice that would not be silenced by anyone and he continued to write and that voice is stamped on Americana as we live and breath now. You have a voice it may not be the same one as Twain, but you have one. Don't feel your not good enough to speak it for thats who you are and thats what you have been put on this earth to be. Do it with pride and if you can't do it alone find those that can help you and challenge you to be better then you ever thought. If this site has taught me anything in the past 3 years it has taught me that I can only carry things so far by myself but together we can do what ever we set out too. So ask yourself is it time for you to make that stand Plot121 Aka Robert Lee Niswander... |
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You can get a hold of me herePlot121@yahoo.com Personal E-mail |
To have great poets there must be great audiences too.
Walt Whitman, American Poet (1819-1892)