Hi CyberPoets,

This issue represents the first anniversary edition of our newsletter. The club, begun on August 19, 1998 by Mgonzalez01, had been in operation for eight months before there was a homepage or a newsletter. If you haven't caught on by now, that club start date is the reason why things tend to happen the 20th of each month--e.g: the Interactive Poem begins anew, the print date of the newsletter. Starting the newsletter in April just seemed the appropriate thing to do since April is National Poetry month in the U.S. and the month in which the birth of the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare is celebrated in the U.K. Besides, we all seem to get a little more poetic this time of year, right?

An anniversary issue of something is supposed to look back over its accomplishments and look ahead at some new goals. We have a few of both. Over the past year, we have managed to bring you just what we set out to publish: great links, resource books and books of interest on poetry, information concerning the growth of the club, information about the homepage and interest in it, contest results, announcements of publication, and the club Interactive poem. What it lacked, if it lacked anything at all, was more direct input from you.

That is our goal for the remainder of the year 2000 and beyond. We want to turn you into reporters for the Cyber Poet's Niche newsletter because we know when you are out there searching the web, reading campus bulletin boards and newspapers, participating in off-line poetry clubs and in academic programs concerning creative writing (particularly of poetry), you are discovering ideas and opportunities which you could be sharing with the rest of us.

The club, Cyber Poet's Niche has, we believe, three goals or main purposes. One is to celebrate poetry as a form of expression. By examining our own writings and the writings of accomplished well-known writers, we discover the inner workings of this art. Two is to present our own work for the review of our peers. Their criticism and words of encouragement help us continue our exploration of toward better expression. Three is to propose opportunities where our voices can be heard, opportunities to publish and share. It is this last which we hope to embrace more fully in the future with your help.

You have several means of doing so�you may post information about contests and publishing opportunities to the club message board, you can e-mail them to Mgonzalez01, Poetry_Gal, or myself, or you may message us with Yahoo! pager and let us know about them for this newsletter.

-- 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-nine members of CPN, seventeen are members with showcase pages on the club homepage. In alphabetic order, showcase members are: AngelPie_Mouse, ArrylT, Cendrilloner, Crowstouch, Elfenone, Faerimuse, Jazz_85, Isitis, Kattlyn, Mgonzalez01, MooseLodge1999, Oldcusser, Poetry_Gal, Romusthepoet, Sis_Sarana19, Telescope07, and TheCyberwitch. If you want to be added, see the homepage Showcase Questionnaire.

This month (between March 21 and April 20) contributions were added to the showcase pages for the following members: crowstouch, MGonzalez01, OldCusser,and Telescope07 -- or for four of our seventeen 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.

Did you happen to notice who started this month's, April's Interactive Poem? Right, Telescope01 gave us our first lines, an airy yet pensive beginning concerning the cherry blossom (a symbol of Spring) and the transitory nature of this time of year. We are calling it�

Time of the Cherry Blossom

Passed over the cherry flower In an instant moment That beauty is like the foam Fragile pleasant time Such as going about with lover A has-been day as a dream Bygone days as if the cherry flower      (Telescope07)

Was a ghost of ages past, Whose ageless beauty has withered and died Yet whose spirit last With a lively essence and lingers on Like an Emperial Bride...      (MGonzalez01 )

Sea of season beginning, lapping on the shore of imagination; Fragrance of flower blooming, the incoming tide over sands of emotion. Associations too youngly felt, too youngly known Buried too youngly in the soul to be awakened as memory of love, when we had no notion of what love truly is or was or could be. Our wisdom blunts the pang of incomprehensible joy, Amours our vulnerability almost past feeling, Fades the blush of sensibility as easily as the wind disperses the cherry flower And the tide flows away.      (AngelPie_Mouse)

[end]

We presently have 49 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 two. The departing member were bluecyd and sustina. Since we had not seen their work, or any posting by them really, it's hard to say we will miss them although in the immortal words of John Donne, "each man's passing diminished me" (or something like that). It is like that with participation in anything. Or as Wordsworth was fond of pointing out, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

As for our position in the numbers game�we've been holding steady in position 28 of clubs on or about poetry and have been since February. Steady is good.

New Members. This month, we acquired one new member to whom we would like to extend a special welcome and extend particular invitation for her to share her work. Welcome gregorybeacher1!

Other Club News... Did anyone happen to notice our club colors seem a little more vivid than in past weeks? A new program available to founders allows us to add more color to our pages in links and text, alter the left frame background, and add background graphics. We chose one from those in our homepage collection--one which we hoped would keep the page legible. Do you like it?

Americans' Favorite Poems
Robert Pinsky Favorite Poem Project
Maggie Dietz (Editor)
Format: Hardcover, 288pp.
ISBN: 0393048209
Publisher: Norton,Ww
Pub. Date: October

Annotation: This anthology embodies Robert Pinsky's commitment to discover America's beloved poems, his special undertaking as Poet Laureate of the United States. The selections in this anthology were chosen from the personal letters of thousands of Americans who responded to Robert Pinsky's invitation to write to him about their favorite poems. Some poems are memories treasured in the mind since childhood; some crystallize the passion of love or recall the trail of loss and sorrow. The poems and poets in this anthology--from Sappho to Lorca, from Shakespeare and Chaucer to Gwendolyn Brooks, Louise Gl�ck, and Allen Ginsberg--are poems to be read aloud and memorized, poems to be celebrated as part of our nation's cultural inheritance. Accompanying the poems are comments by people who speak not as professional critics but as passionate readers of various ages, professions and regions. This anthology, in a manner unlike any other, discloses the rich and vigorous presence of poetry in American life at the millennium and provides a portrait of the United States through the lens of poetry. The Favorite Poem Project is an official part of the Bicentennial Celebration of the Library of Congress and the White House Millennium Council.

Our Notes: We told you about this project this time last year. Many of you wrote the committee and expressed an interest in your favorite poets and poems. This volume is the result of the outpourings from people like us. The results may be interesting.

Great Love Poems
Shane Weller (Editor)
Format: Paperback, 120pp.
ISBN: 0486272842
Publisher: Dover Publications, Incorporated
Pub. Date: October 1992

From The Publisher: Down through the millennia the emotion of love has inspired countless poets to great heights of lyrical expression. In this volume readers can sample more than 150 great love poems by English and American poets.

Civil War Poetry and Prose
Walt Whitman Candace Ward (Editor)
Format: Paperback, 90pp.
ISBN: 0486285073
Publisher: Dover Publications, Incorporated
Pub. Date: April 1995

From The Publisher: This superb selection of Walt Whitman's poems, letters, and prose from the Civil War years, is filled with the sights and sounds of war and its ugly aftermath. A vast and powerful range of emotions, experienced firsthand by Whitman while he worked as a volunteer in the military hospitals, is expressed within these pages.

Things to Remember when writing Poems
We ought to suggest printing this one out, framing it, and putting it on the wall at eye level in whatever quiet corner you use when writing. A great checklist with explanations on things every poet should consider when taking up paper and pen. [URL: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~greebie/Criticism/tips.html]

John Hewitt's Poetry Writing Tips
This article was written by John Hewitt, Director of the Writer's Resource Center at http://www.poewar.com. It was one in a series of articles available at the website and comes highly recommended for the information it provides on the art of writing poetry. [URL: http://www.poewar.com/articles/poetrytips.htm]

Patrick Martin: The Web Page/The Poetry Resource
We mentioned this site last month, but it bears repeating, in particular as the webmaster bookmarks our club page under his heading of Collections. It is an excellent resource page for all things poetic. [URL: http://www.pmpoetry.com/]

Credits:
Editorial and page layout by AngelPie_Mouse. This issue is for April 20, 2000.

For those who check the Readability of this newsletter: Flesch Reading Ease: 55.2 (a little more difficult than usual) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9.6 (above average).

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