From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=900">RennieLorca</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

I enjoyed so many of the poets at Blender posting pictures last year. A friend has recently put one of my pictures online, so here 'tis: <a href="http://community-2.webtv.net/Hap2176/cesspic/scrapbookFiles/importD27.jpg">http://community-2.webtv.net/Hap2176/cesspic/scrapbookFiles/importD27.jpg</a> He is recovering from a medical problem that had taken him offline for months, but is rebuilding his webpages. He is obviously a serious poetry fan of more than just my work from his former webpages on poets he enjoys. He is a kind friend I hope to introduce to folks at Blender ..... Rennie
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1058">Chances are</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Teej - 'Outside the Box' was splendid. Each time I reread it, the image becomes more vivid and grows vaster (is that a word?).<BR>
<BR>
Chances
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=8">Ali</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Congrats to all the front pagers!!! *smile* Great job everyone!<BR>
<BR>
And Kirk?  Thank you very much for the front page pick.  I am honored.  Now I'm smiling like a complete idiot.  *huge grin*  Thank you! :)<BR>
<BR>
Love and restless silence, Ali
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=9">Madison</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

fairiemouse, I totally enjoyed "Sales" and "June" -  such compact style, great flow of images and senses.  At the end of each, my innervoice said "wow".  
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1088">Purple Princess</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

TJ Holland - Thankyou so much for the comment. The fact that you liked it makes it extra special. I've been reading the Loveblender for a while now and you are one of my favorite writers. <BR>

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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=328">Rhetoric</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

frozencharlotte:<BR>
your most recent post, <a href="/blend/wv.cgi?id=2003.01.06.10.25.31347">Same Old Song</a> ,  has a fun rhyme and a carries a great story. You said a lot with very few words... <BR>
<BR>
Interesting picks for the front page, Kirk.  This digest has a very different tone: from snapping heads, drowning, and broken mirrors...you have me somber, yet hopeful!<BR>
<BR>
Congrats to the lucky ones!<BR>
<BR>
Rhetoric
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1076">Richard E. Murphy</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Hello "Blenders". <BR>
 Just a quick note to say "awesome".  You folks are really churning out some great work. The central and collective theme of love is really what it all appears to be about.  "Love" ...what a wonderful thing but such a painful endeavor! Makes you wonder where we would all be without it...happy, sad, or even alive?   Keep up the good work!  <BR>
Happy New Years! <BR>
Richard E. Murphy
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=909">leamas</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

I have yet to stop laughing.
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=909">leamas</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Is there anybody out there?  Does the world as a whole breath the same collective crap at the same time.  Can anyone break from the prescribed crap that seems to cover this site day in and day out.  NEWS FLASH!!!! If you've read one poem on this site you've read them all.  Ooo look this idea is new, wait I was wrong it's the same thing I read last month only with a poor rhythmic scheme.  Nobody loves a good turn of the phrase like the simple.  "Let's put this word in front of that one.  Wow I've got a poem".  &gt;STOP&lt;  Read some real poetry, come up with original thought, and for the love of God and all that is Holy only write what is worth a damn.  I have been reading this stuff for the last year or so, threw in my own stuff as a mockery of what I read.  You people didn't catch the sarcasm, rather praised my work.  Sorry for the rant: A lot of you have talent, but you do not get better at chess by playing your equal.
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=4">tj holland</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Oh, leamas...you are such an old curmudgeon! If I didn't know better I would picture a grumpy old man in his naugahyde recliner, sputtering about the foolishness of poets. You have talent man. But you are a victim of outside inertia and momentum. Grab life by the balls, leamas, and twist a little!<BR>
<BR>
-Teej
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=4">tj holland</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

And I do say that I agree with your rant for the most part. There seems to be a celebration of the mundane here. I can only hope that the same people who spend hours reading our lame little posts also take the time to read the greatest works of the past and present. <BR>
As an aside...I do not profess to be a good poet. I stick my stuff up here for my own vanities. lol!<BR>
<BR>
Hey, wanna do lunch sometime? LMAO!<BR>
<BR>
-Teej
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=13">B.K.</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Lemas You and Your Collective Cast of Characters!!!<BR>
<BR>
Stuff it up your Collective ASSES!<BR>
<BR>
Not everyone can be Picasso or Shakespeare or Jack the Ripper (so you will understand) There is amazing work here<BR>
with a great cast of characters to go with it and WHO THE HECK ARE YOU??? to say otherwise.
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=2">scqueen</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

leamus ~ If you don't like it, leave.
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=2">scqueen</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

excuse me, I meant 'leamas' (forgive the misspelling, surely I will get forty lashes for that alone).
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=13">B.K.</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Ok Lemas, I just read your work hahahah and I can't stop laughing..what a ploy to get us to read you...but it worked didn't it. You got your attention, your're funny, so whats next??? <BR>
<BR>
bk
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=74">Echolocation</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

"Her beauty was like a beautiful horse being ridden by a wild monkey. I forget her other qualities."  Heh heh heh -- good one, Kirk!  Where do you find these things??? <BR>
<BR>
Don't know if anyone has seen Two Weeks Notice yet (Hugh Grant/Sandra Bullock romantic comedy: fluff but with some good lines).  It contains a similar discussion about "bobcat pretzels."  I won't give away any more details but it was pretty funny...
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=74">Echolocation</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Leamas - You raise an interesting point: "you don't get better at chess by playing your equal."  That is true, in chess.  The problem with using that analogy in this context is that creativity isn't a contest or a competition.  For the true artist, the only person you ever compete with is yourself -- your focus is on improving your own talent, your own work, coming up with something that you yourself are proud to have written.  Whether or not the rest of the world appreciates it is irrelevant.<BR>
<BR>
You are correct also that reading quality work is one way to improve one's own.  But if you think that people who read and contribute here aren't doing that, you are quite wrong.  I've seen many masters' works contributed - Tennyson, Gibran, Neruda, Rilke, John Donne, e.e. cummings, Shakespeare, Browning, and on and on.  Blenderites are quite capable of recognizing and appreciating quality.  <BR>
<BR>
The fact that we don't laugh at bad pieces posted here doesn't mean we don't see them -- it just means that we pass over them in silence, having better things to do than point the finger at other people's shortcomings. 
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=962">LuLu</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Lemas-<BR>
EXCUSE YOU! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE BRINGING YOUR "OH IM SUCH A GREAT POET" SELF TO THIS WEBSITE? LAST TIME I CHECKED THIS WAS A WEBSITE FREE FOR ANYONE WHO WANTED TO POST. SOME OF US MAY NOT BE THE BEST POETS IN THE WORLD, SOME OF US MAY BE, REGAURDLESS THAT GIVES YOU NO RIGHT TO TELL US HOW HORRIBLE WE ARE. I BET YOU SUCK! BESIDES IF YOU DONT LIKE OUR POETRY LEAVE! NO BODY IS FORCING YOU TO COME TO THIS SITE AND IM PRETTY SURE WE'D BE ALOT HAPPIER IF YOU DIDNT! THIS IS A SITE FOR PEOPLE WHO ENJOY EXPRESSING THEMSEVLES THROUGH POETRY, SO DO US ALL A FAVOR AND GO AWAY!<BR>
YOU CAN GO TO YOUR OWN PRISSY, PREPPY, "OH WERE SUCH GREAT WRITERS" SITE AND LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE!<BR>
LULU
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=4">tj holland</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

People, people...let's just relax a little. Surely we aren't all so reactive, are we? Now let's just look at this a little. Leamas makes his point. States his opinion. Nothing wrong with that, is there? I'm sure we all grant ourselves the same option. If we don't like what he has written, we can either comment on it, and perhaps initiate a discussion, maybe gain a little insight into another human being, maybe see things from another point of veiw. It's all growth. OR we can yell and kick and scream. Then that way, we won't have to look at anything we don't want to see and we can sit in our little comfort zones and feel safe and smart. (Of course, we don't SOUND smart when we throw a fit.) <BR>
Nobody said this was a posh Poet Laureate forum. We don't sound off and postulate about how fantastic and bright and intellectual we are. We don't drink fine wine and haughtily discuss form and rythm ad nauseum. (though MANY a poem I've posted here was helped along with a bottle of Reisling) So why do we get upset when someone says they don't think there's much quality work here? Do you beleive him? If not, don't worry about it. Don't buy into it. If so, put some stuff out there and let's have a discussion about it.<BR>
<BR>
"Methinks though dost protest too much."
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=4">tj holland</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

oops...THOU.   LOL!!<BR>

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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=13">B.K.</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Well I started the screaming act and Echo did it the right way. LuLu and I just have tempers ha but we have to be careful how we use them right LuLu?<BR>
<BR>
Leamas, My apology for screaming. Just put something original on the front page and you'll get read more often and a little more respect.<BR>
<BR>
bk
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=13">B.K.</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Ok there is a nice site where for just one poem they will cut you to ribbons and have you for breakfast lunch and dinner with glee...Leamus you must be one of those folk that just spews over from there with glee to see what you can stir up. (If not I'll gladly give you the site address if you need some place to go bleed) It's easy to be critical but much harder to be creative. What we don't want around here are sour puss critics that are cold hearted so and so's (I'm trying to be nice) incapable of doing any more than spewing their own tripe.<BR>
<BR>
bk<BR>
<BR>
bk
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1050">Kase</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Leamas,  Ummmm, screw being polite.  I look at your collection of work that you have posted on the blender, and, well, you are not one of the Greats, of our time or any other, really.  Since you're s sophisticated, when's the last time you picked up a volume by Poe, Hemmingway, or Steinbeck?  Dr. Seuss would even be rolling on the floor from the crappiness of "Ode to an Squirrel".  Please just start your own site so you'll always be pleased with the great work that's been selected to be featured.  If you notice, I haven't seen a coment yet where anyone was claiming to be Shakesphere.  "Ode to someone with low self esteem"  seems to be more like it.  I will agree that some of the poets here have great talent, but what they choose to do with their gift is not really your business.  "Ode" only has one use, (aside from boosting people's judgement when it comes to their own stuff) and that is to make copies ofit and keep it on hand for those days when you forget to buy toilet paper.  Well, I guess that's a tad bit narrow minded... you could try to house train a puppy with copies of it.
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From: <a href="/blend/av.cgi?id=1058">Chances are</a><BR>
Date: 6 January 2003<P>

Yup. I agree with yez all. (Except HIM of course).<BR>
From a self-absorbed egotistical grammatically and creatively impaired and limited unoriginal terrible poet named Chances (but I'd rather be a poet than a critic).
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