I agree with Shoshanna about Kipling's "If" transcending gender lines. You feel like a better person just for having read it, too. There's no way I could choose just one favorite poem. I couldn't even choose a single favorite poet! But right now, Mary Oliver's "The Sunflowers" is the one I keep going back to and rereading throughout the day, like a touchstone of sorts. I like it because it encourages me to stop running around like a chicken with my head cut off and remember to just breathe and to appreciate the seemingly commonplace things and people around me who do "the long work/ of turning their lives/ into a celebration" although it "is not easy." So rarely does anyone bother to tell us that happiness comes through hard work instead of circumstances, that it really strikes me when it IS said. Lu

I can't help but wonder how many people who downloaded Fleishman's book will actually read it and how many downloaded it just because it was there and not "nailed down" as you put it. Still, as someone who has downloaded free creative work and then turned around to search out and buy the whole product, I think promotions like this can be absolutely great. Don't know about making the WHOLE work available, though. Maybe a chapter or few to tantalize. I HAVE refrained from buying unknown books online simply because I couldn't get my eyes on enough of the text to be fairly certain the book itself would be worth turning loose of the money. It sounds like Fleishman had some other less potentially expensive options, too, that he could have used. Lu

Thanks for the welcome! I didn't want to just barge in, but I had so much fun with this last night, I confess, I was itching to share it.

OK. I combined the Petrarchan and Shakespearean forms (it was late!) with an octave of ababcdcd and a sestet of efgefg.

Raining Cats and Frogs

When angels weep and startled toads descend
from out the cloud-veiled heavens in a burst
of rain, my common sense leaps to defend
my brain from overload. Unless were cursed
with Egypts ancient plagues I cant see how
amphibians can shower from above.
And why not larger beasts (perhaps a cow)
the cherubs out of heaven thus might shove?
Still, since these frogs are croaking round my feet
the best of it I set myself to make
by putting to good use what hast been given.
Trefuse angelic bounty is not meet,
so I will set aside my taste for steak
and glut on frog-legs lightning-fried in heaven.

If this offends anyone's poetic sensibilities, I apologise. Sometimes traditional form just seems to be crying out for ridiculosity to be applied.

Hi. I'm new. Really new. My brother sent me a link, saying that you all had a good writers' board going and thought I might be interested. I explored this forum the other day and have to say you all've got something special going here. Most other boards I've found are either too soft on each other or a bit on the egotistical side. You seem to encourage and challenge each other, instead.

This challenge has been lurking at the back of my mind for days. Won't leave me alone. Would you all consider it too terribly rude of me to hop in with an attempt so soon after waving hello?

Lu