Friends-- The winner of the November, 2003 Open Space Poetry Contest is Florian Fischer. Florian is now our Poet Laureate for the next six months, with the responsibility to organize the next contest, in six months, and to support the writing and reading of poetry in any way he sees fit.
Congratulations, Florian! Please confirm for me your post office mailing address, so that I may send a small gift with my congratulations. Along with the votes, I have received many favorable comments on the overall high quality of the poems. And the voting was very close, with the apparent winner shifting from day to day as the sticky dots arrived. Many distributed their dots to several poems, to honor more than one poet. The poems, with author names, are copied below. I also have them in a Word file, so let me know if you want them as a formatted file. I love that the OSList honors poetry, in our everyday mail and with a "contest" twice a year. I am deeply honored to have held the title of Poet Laureate for these last months. And now, Florian, the job is all yours! Love, Joelle Everett OPEN SPACE POETRY CONTEST—NOVEMBER, 2003 POEM #1 Leadership #20 --by Rich Foss A leader knows how to be close to loam, a loose mixture of loss, death, and microbes. I wonder how a leader makes room for a falling tree. Now don't get me wrong; I love energy, creativity and joy, and I long like a pruned raspberry bush but a leader must know how to sit alone when the tree falls. He knows that in the decay a few words will wriggle free and he will be able to say who he is. POEM #2 --by Alan Stewart I wonder if you see that it's up to you and me and all the other we who see humanity differently to be as free as she or he can be ferociously passionately responsibly ..... and take the next step! POEM #3 I Wonder --by Audrey Coward I Wonder What Would Happen If I Always: Appreciated life Beamed brightly Chose courage Did daring deeds Expressed my love Felt compassion Gave freely Healed completely Inspired hope Kindled friendships Let go Meditated calmly Navigated wisely Opened space Passed over the past Quit worrying Released creativity Soared higher Thought great thoughts Understood everything Visioned recklessly Wondered why X-ed the to-do list Yearned for peace Zigzagged on a scooter POEM #4 I wonder --by Florian Fischer I wonder whether words will work I wonder whether wanting will work I wonder whether worrying will work I wonder whether voting will work to get answers on where to go and when to stop and how to stay will worshipping work or waiting for wonders or is it simply giving welcome to the wonder happening already and continuously as selffulfilling reality not answering any question about right or wrong or how or where or when I am to witness the wonder and to stay wondering until perhaps to my two words before last: I wonder POEM #5 I WONDER WHO --by Chris Weaver It’s human to be angelic surrounded -florian i wonder who lights the fire whose sparks glitter along the rafters of this lodge the sparks cast a beckoning wey and by day you have been arriving your feet are long sweet walking along a daily way of dust, a beckoning of small damp circles on the earth a trail of tears of joy, for following and i wonder whose eyes cast this beckoning wey in the dust of your today who cries softly solely for the love of your following feet ? and by night you have been arriving your face by night cast upward where you glimpse her robes gathering now across the crescent moon your feet by night are long sweet walking where the sparks glitter a beckoning wey across the sky to this lodge where a circle is long sweet gathering tonight in breathless one-der POEM #6 Tomorrow Space --by David Adams I wonder if I really will write my poem tomorrow.. What will open into the space of its now-ness? A million things crowd in, scampering possibilities Bustling, pushing at the fringe of my consciousness, Grown dull in the history of so much thinking.. Can this space be held empty for a while, as an Invitation so sweet that no-one rushes to reply? As a sacred pool of stillness no breath dares disturb? As the hush of the moment's encounter with a masterpiece? What moves in this precious, protected nothing? Shhhhhhhh.... [Angels are opening the petals of a heart...] POEM #7 Simple but not easy --by Alan Stewart "Too simple, too obvious, too long-lasting and too applicable to our whole of life to be a management fad." So said an MD about the spirit of open space now bubbling in their wholesome place. What a gift to see that the 3 Rs of our common humanity - relationship, respect and responsibility make for all we all can be. I wonder if those now free will act accountably to bring advocacy that such simplicity does not grow on a tree? * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
