Welcome

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Dear CyberPoets,

Hurricane Floyd bore done on the New Jersey coastline with Mary right in its path. Fortunately, she is alive and well. Unfortunately, she may have to use her blow dryer to remove the excess moisture from her motherboard (Warning: Do Not Try This At Home). We expect her to return on-line momentarily.

AngelPie_Mouse flexes her fingers, contemplating some mischief. I'll bet Mary could use some words of encouragement and sympathy right now. Let's all of us write her at once and wish her our best. The address is: [email protected]. Can we say: "Flood the mailbox? Bounce back?" LOL

So this month, we've a lot of news to go through and we may as well get to it.

AngelPie_Mouse

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For several months now, Cyber Poet's Niche has had its own webpage. It is where we showcase the work of many of our members, list URLs to pages which focus on hundreds of favorite and familiar poets as well as websites that provide tools to help us write better, and post information and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). We are currently exploring writing guides and workshop exercises to help you with the creative process.

The website is authored and maintained by AngelPie_Mouse and is located at the following address: http://www.geocities.com/cyberpoetsniche.

Addendum from the Webmaster:

Of the forty-five members of CPN, fifteen are members with showcase pages on the club website. In alphabetic order, showcase members are: AngelPie_Mouse, ArrylT, Crowstouch, Elfenone, Faerimuse, IdentityMatrix, Isitis, Lane_Ware, Mgonzalez01, NALewis, Oldcusser, Poetry_Gal, Romusthepoet, Telescope07, TheCyberwitch. While we cannot expect 100% participation, we would be pleased if a few more members stepped forward and filled out the request form to showcase to be found on website.

This month (between August 21 and September 20) contributions were added to the showcase pages for the following members: AngelPie_Mouse, MGonzalez01, NALewis, Poetry_Gal, RomusthePoet, and Telescope07 (or for six of our fifteen showcase members).   You may view these additions by clicking the name (on the website repost of this newsletter only).

We also added to our Interactive Poem and our listing of URLs for poetry sites and sites on writing aids.

Request from the Webmaster:

During the past few weeks, Yahoo-Geocities has been quietly changing things around--a new editor, new ways of accessing editors, swaps of servers to consolidate service. Occassionally, this means data loss and backup to displays that were saved prior to such losses. This may mean that page errors occur, poems dropped, or links becoming suddenly non-functional. It is impossible for me to catch all such errors given the size of our website. If you find such an error, please report it as soon as possible to [email protected].

Does anyone actually see our website?

Accounting: Among the things that Yahoo!-Geocities changed this month was the policy of reporting the hits to our website (they no longer do this). Thus, we will have to begin our own accounting procedure until something new comes along. As of this moment, our main counter shows that we have had a total of 2,155 hits per all pages (or an average of 78 hits per page). Our index shows 581 visitors (as of this writing) or an average of 6.4 visitors per day.

What do these numbers mean? The main counter indicates that people coming to our website do not come to read a single poet or to use a specific feature, but stay to sample several pages. The average per day is slightly less than I was able to report for July (6.7) and may indicate a variety of influences which affect web surfing in general, e.g.: the holiday just past, time of year. In other words, we do not perceive the drop of .3 visitors per day as any loss of interest in our site and expect an increase in the coming months.

How do we advertise? Presently, we have banner links on all pages in the website. This serves two functions. Primarily, it means we don't have those annoying pop-ups on our pages. However, a secondary purpose is that it increases our status in the banner rotation program which we joined at the time the page was created. (BTW, if you see our banner while visiting any Yahoo-Geocities website, please let me know -- it will never appear on our own website.) We also belong to two webrings: The Yahoo-Geocities Webring and the Club Founders' Club Webring. To this, I will be adding registration with the main search engines this month (we were awaiting a significant volume of material).

The main source of advertising for our page is your "word-of-mouth." Every time you tell a friend that you have a poem posted to our website and give the address, you potentially increase the traffic (and possibly the membership in our club). Keep it up!

Resources: Yahoo-Geocities allows us 11 meg of space on website. Of that space, we are presently just over 5 meg used or just at 50% of our web space (currently available). We can increase space as necessary.

Updates: New graphics have been added to the pages of mgonzalez01 and AngelPie_Mouse, which required some refurbishing. Also, these two showcases and the showcase for RomusthePoet were slightly reorganized to make better use of the space. Most viewers, however, will not perceive a difference except in relation to the graphics as noted.

Question from the Webmaster To The FIFTEEN SHOWCASE MEMBERS: Last issue, I posed the following question to the showcase members of CPN:

At present, the display of names in showcase are arranged in order of joining the showcase. When there were only a handful of members, this did not present a significant difficulty to locate links to individual pages. However, as our membership increases, it may be more prudent to arrange page links alphabetically. Since you are first in, however, I offer this decision to you. Should we maintain status quo, or should we alphabetize the list of showcases?

In response, I received a single answer from crowstouch who felt that we should maintain the status quo with regard to the index of showcase pages. Taking this response together with the non-response of all other members, I will not be reorganizing the listing at this time. Thank you, crowstouch.

Would you like your work showcased? You may obtain a copy of the permission form (that is the form giving us permission to reprint your work from the message board) on this website by clicking here, or see the page Showcase Questionnaire from the Main Index page of this website.

We also welcome your articles and notes and information on websites you think would be of interest to your fellow poets and poetry lovers. And please, tell your friends where we are.

--AngelPie_Mouse, Webmaster

On September 3rd, we announced the winners in The Yahoo! IRCFlirt Chat Club Love Poetry Contest on our website. It seemed appropriate for us to do so as many of members were participants in this contest (see http://www.geocities.com/cyberpoetsniche/miscellaneous/announcement.html). The graphics awarded to our members who won honors in this contest have been added to their showcase pages and gladly. We would likewise like to display award graphics (or suitable facsimile) for all members showcasing on our website who have won recognition and the right to brag. If you've won a prize, please let us know by writing [email protected]. If possible, send a copy of the award or contest graphic or information concerning the contest and sponsors (their URL).

Tell us about a contest coming up. Don't be afraid of a little friendly competition, if you know of a poetry contest accepting FREE general submissions, please let us know. Send information to [email protected] or post to the club message board.

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Every month there is a new Group Poem at the CyberPoet’s Niche Club. It begins on the 20th of the previous month, with this newsletter, and concludes a few days before (so we can go to press with it). This work is a special poem woven by each of the members of the CyberPoet’s Niche (that is: all members are welcome to contribute in open forum). This month, for the month of September, the topic was "autumn" and it began with a contribution by OldCusser which read::

The first leaves fall from the oaks in the lane Autumn is happening again ... (OldCusser)

This was followed by a complaint from AngelPie_Mouse (me) that the single couplet start had forced her to write her entry in couplets. That message somehow got carried forward for several posts unheeded, which means that the couplets were not adhered to by all adding to the poem. Eventually, when AngelPie_Mouse got control again, she was able to delete the complaint.

The resulting poem follows:

Autumn

The first leaves fall from the oaks in the lane Autumn is happening again ...     (OldCusser)

Russet and gold, the color of blood the maple tree, the alder, the elm join the flood A cascade of color bright in their hue Falling to earth, the harvest is due.      (AngelPie_Mouse)

The mingling colors old friends which meet After days and months of hiding complete Behind green cloaks, now the maples come out In their finest array and the wind blows about Their beautiful clothes in earnest display And sends to the ground their majestic array.      (poetry_gal)

And in the woods a lady dressed in a golden gown Holds out her arms extended in a sweet embrace With curls of amber and a golden crown To welcome the new babe, Autumn and kiss her face!      (mgonzalez01)

As the leaves fall, the smell of autumn fastly approaches us. The squirrels are collecting their supplies to prepare for what's ahead. The lands seem to go into relax mode, to settle in for the long haul. Soon the gray sky's will take over, and the silky blanket of white will take over the land.      (rick)

And thus, the cycle is complete. Like a silver ring with no beginning and no ending.. Life does spin In an orbit of change. Nothing remains the same forever But all creatures must embrace The metamorphosis of nature...      (mgonzalez01)

Change and change again. The whirl and swirl of bright ornaments A day clock mechanism, spiraling to dazzle the senses. We watch in rapt fascination-- Not wholly within, not wholly without-- A paradox between yet still beneath the glass dome of wonder.      (AngelPie_Mouse)

[End]

Previous month's Group (or Interactive) Poems are published on the homepage in the section Our Writings as Interactive Poetry.

We presently have 45 members at the CyberPoet’s Niche. We have Chat Night every Wednesday at 9PM Eastern (AngelPie_Mouse, who lives on the west coast is campaigning for one hour later). This month, our club is in 15th position among the standings of Yahoo! Chat Clubs of its kind and category. That means we're still climbing and we hope to keep it that way.

New Founder: This month, we named a new founder to the board. Well, more members mean more administrative stuff to do. Our newest founder is Poetry_Gal and we've assigned her the formidable tasks of going out and finding some new members, encouraging and promoting our weekly chat sessions, and searching the Internet for more great links on poetry and writing poetry.

Says Poetry_Gal: "These are all good things I really enjoy doing."

The Poet of the Month: Sylvia Plath

This month, we have been exploring the poetry and life of the poet Sylvia Plath. Discussion has sparked a small controversy concerning the neurotic behavior of seeking "perfection" and what it costs in terms of self-esteem and anxiety. Along the way, however, we've glimpsed some really good verse. We invite you to look in on our poet of the month on our homepage: Plath

Next Month's Poet of the Month

Get ready to get spooked out everyone! Although he didn't actually write any haunted poetry--maybe haunting, but not haunted--next month's poet of the month is the kind of guy you think about when you think of the month of October. Poetry_Gal is busy working on the presentation as we speak (write). And for the rest…mum's the word.

Ten New Members

This month, we welcomed a bunch of new members--ten to be precise. These include: anslor, apeachypoet_99, FiestaE, joanlimlimchao, lynne64070, magicmoonz, mooselodge1999, phynephreak, phys_man, and vannah_b (did I miss anyone?). To these ten new members, we offer this very special...

WELCOME!

The following came out of on-line chat discussion on a past Wednesday night (see, we do talk about serious subjects besides romance and software). We decided to pose it to you as a sort of question of the month.

Do you think a neurotic pursuit of perfection is inherent in the artist (poet)?

And more recently, we asked:

Should poetry be used to embody a message, or should the message develop naturally from within the poem without premeditation?

Do you have a question you would like to pose to the membership? Bring it with you to our regular Wednesday night chat or write: [email protected].

Every month, we go out there and scour the net looking for sites on poetry which may be of interest as writing resources or merely for the enjoyment of poetry. Here are some good poetry sites we found this month.

The Poetry Project: At St. Mark's Church [http://www.poetryproject.com/]

Anshr: Welcome to the Wonderful World of Poetry [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/9922/index.html]

Virtual Slam [http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/4675/]

A new feature this month is Mgonzalez01's "books on poetry" recommendations. Being a librarian, she naturally has an affinity for books. Combining that with her Internet interests and her interest in verse, she scours the on-line booksellers for new offerings. This month, she makes the following recommendations based on research which you can purchase from http://www.amazon.com.

	The Classic Tradition of Haiku Dover/Faubian Bowers ISBN # 0486292746 This book spans 400 years (1488-1902) of the history of the Haiku.
	Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry Richmand, Ellmann ISBN # 0393956369 1988 WW Norton and Company A modern anthology of poetry.

I highly recommend the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry also. It is a must read for the serious poet and reader of poetry, particularly the notes on criticism and analysis.

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