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Letter from the Editor Cyber Poet's Niche Homepage: Current number of members, current number of showcases, who posted to showcase, visitors to website, and any major changes to website. Group Poem Club News: Club standing, new members, member news Poetry Links

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Hi CyberPoets,

It's a new year and a new volume of the CyberPoet's Niche newsletter. I hope that each of you survived the rollover of Y2K without incident. In case, you've completely forgotten, I offer this reminder.

It began about 2 a.m. on December 30th here on the West Coast or midnight at the International Dateline. We sat up watching the festivities passing from time zone to time zone, certain that there were going to be some problem, some disaster, some calamity caused by the roll-over the clock to the year 2000. The Y2K Bug was supposed to knock planes from the sky, cause nuclear reactors to malfunction. Banking systems were going to fail. Electrical power grids and other utilities were going to cascade into darkness. The world was going to end. All the experts said so. The next sound you were supposed to hear after Dick Clark proclaiming the New Year was going to be angel harps and the turning of the page in the Book of Life.

It didn't happen. Oh, well…there's always next year sans the millenium bug. Maybe, God didn't want there to be any confusion over whether the end of the universe were merely a computer glitch.

Now, if you take all this doom seeing seriously, then you know you only have the next few months to write the epic verse to the universe--the poem that is going to be the last words penned for all eternity, encapsulating the meaning of life and making it all make sense. Someone has got to do it. It might as well be you. "Poets! Pens to paper."

-- AngelPie_Mouse

The website is authored and maintained by AngelPie_Mouse and is located at the following addresses: http://www.geocities.com/cyberpoetsniche for Newsletters, FAQs, and general business and at http://www.geocities.com/cyber_poets for Member Showcases.

Of the forty-eight members of CPN, nineteen are members with showcase pages on the club homepage. In alphabetic order, showcase members are: AngelPie_Mouse, ArrylT, Cendrilloner, Crowstouch, Elfenone, Faerimuse, Jazz_8, Isitis, Kattlyn (new page), Lane_Ware, Mgonzalez01, MooseLodge1999, NALewis, Oldcusser, Poetry_Gal, Romusthepoet, Sis_Sarana19, Telescope07, and TheCyberwitch. If you want to be added, see the homepage Showcase Questionnaire.

This month (between December 21 and January 20) contributions were added to the showcase pages for the following members: AngelPie_Mouse, crowstouch, Kattlyn (new page), MGonzalez01, Poetry_Gal, RomusthePoet, and Telescope07 -- or for seven of our nineteen showcase members.   You may view these additions by clicking the name (on the website repost of this newsletter only).

The group (or interactive) poem begins on the 20th of each month with any member of the club posting a few lines that suggest a topic to the message board under the heading "[month] Interactive." It may then be added to by other members of the club, who repost the material preceding their entry. The purpose of the group (or interactive) is to provide an exercise in critical reading skills and promote participation. You may read more about it on our homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/cyber_poets/ourwrite/interactive1.html.

This month, for the month of January, the poem was started by AngelPie_Mouse and the topic was "winter love" and the Club composed this poem:

Frost Warnings

Lie with me in warm embrace; Let me kiss your cheery face. The world beyond may sleep in snow, Or in some haste to move and go Forget what it should owe To quiet exchange in quiet hour, The energy of a true love's power, But you and I shall know.     (AngelPie_Mouse)

That inspite of December's chill There is a thrill That our love, like a flame whose embers warms our days and nights with passion all through December... Well into the new year... And in the midst of all this bitter coldness and dispair... There is still a sparkle of hope and romance in the air...      (mgonzalez01)

The freshness of the virgin year, So new, so pure, so free of fear. Inspires our love to reach new heights, And put past disappointments out of sight.      (Lane_Ware)

A new thing comes into our world, New century with hopes unfurled, That we might seek this time together, In spite of sun, or stormy weather. To reunite our eager hearts, Bind fast as a new century starts. As we watch drifting snow.      (Poetry_Gal)

Melt away all sorrows and despair And we shall linger Two hearts forever, throughout the centuries Proving wrong all the theories... Of how love can utterly go wrong and wither.       (mgonzalez01)

[end]

We presently have 48 members at the CyberPoet’s Niche. We have Chat Night every Wednesday at 10 PM Eastern.

Club Ranking. The ranking of clubs in Yahoo! Is based solely on the number of members, not on member participation. This month we gained one new member and lost one. The departing member had never posted to the club message board, had not communicated with us in any way. It would not appear to me to be because we didn't suit his needs since he expressed none. Still the sad news is that we slipped to 31st position among the standings of Yahoo! Chat Clubs of our category from a tie in 21st position last month. New Members. We have one new member this month, suzstina. We're really glad she could join us and hope she will soon be posting some of her own verse and offering wisdom and insights on the verse of their fellow club members. Again, Welcome suzstina!

Black Bear Review
Writing from a social perspective. Annual poetry contest. There is a reading fee of $10 for poems. [http://home.earthlink.net/~bbreview/]

Poetry Today Online
A place showing links where you may have your poetic work submitted. [http://www.poetrytodayonline.com/submit.html]

Credits:
Editorial and page layout by AngelPie_Mouse
Link information by Poetry_Gal (Mindy Lawrence)

For those who check the Readability of this newsletter: Flesch Reading Ease: 64.1 (within average) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.6 (slightly higher than average).