Invitation to Participate in the One-Year Anniversary Edition of the Virtual Poetorium…

Wow! It seems like it’s been an eternity since the last official Virtual Poetorium three months ago (only two if you count our special holiday Ho-Ho-etorium in December which I posted here on this blog), but I am happy to say that my co-host Ron and I are both back from hiatus, and will be producing a brand new one-year anniversary edition this month (we first started this virtual version of our local open mic poetry last March due to Covid). We are pleased to announce that this month’s featured poet will be someone that most of you readers are probably very familiar with: the fabulous poet, writer, and blogger Brad Osborne. Just like I did with the Ho-Ho-etorium, I’d like to open up this month’s Virtual Poetorium for anyone who would like to participate and invite all my fellow bloggers and faithful readers (or just anyone just happening to read this) to help us celebrate our anniversary and be a part of our online poetry gathering in print.

To participate in our virtual open mic, please send us one of your own original poems or stories (under 2000 words please) either in a Word document file or pasted in the body of an email along with your name, any opening remarks you care to make, and where your poem has appeared if it was previously published to poetorium@mail.com by Friday, March 26th (also if you like, you can send us a photo of yourself to be posted above your poem, but that is totally optional).

Once again, we also need contributions to the Poetorium Group poem which this month will be tentatively titled “Chronology”. To participate, please send us one to six lines with your first line starting with the phrase “In the Year ____“, filling in the blank with any year of your choosing such as “In the Year 374 B.C.” or “In the Year 2525”. The subject of your lines can be about a historical event (either factual or fantastical), a personal incident (real or imagined), or actually anything else you wish. Also for stylistic reasons, please use the past tense if you are writing about a year prior to 2021, the present tense for the current year, and the future tense for any year afterward. All contributions (which will remain anonymous unless otherwise requested) will be compiled in chronological order according to the year to create our group poem which will be included in this month’s Virtual Poetorium. Once again, the deadline for submissions is the night of Friday, March 26th.

This month’s Poetorium writing form challenge will be to write a Hay(na)ku, sometimes referred to as “Philippino Haiku”, which I wrote about on this blog way back in February of 2019. In case, you are not familiar with the form, it somewhat resembles the haiku in the fact that they both consist of three short lines. But unlike the traditional Japanese form, the hay(na)ku is isoverbal, meaning its lines’ lengths are measured by the number of words instead of syllables. There is one word in the first line, two in the second, and three in the third. Also like haiku, a hay(na)ku doesn’t necessarily have to have a title, but there is no rule against it having one either.

Here are four examples that I wrote which appeared on my original post on the hay(na)ku:

Secret Identity

Nobody
knows that
I’m not me.

The Ache of Unrequited Love

Hearts
don’t really
break, but bruise.

It Will All Come Out in the Wash…

Dirty
laundry – red
hats, white sheets.

Unrecognized Potential

Sometimes
even chickens
can unexpectedly fly.

Using the above poems as models, please try writing some yourself and send us your best efforts by Friday, March 26th to be included in this month’s Virtual Poetorium.

If you have any questions about submitting to the virtual open mic, the group Poetorium poem, the writing challenge, or anything else about the Virtual Poetorium itself, please leave them in the comments of this post, and I will try to answer them right away.

Thank you so very much for reading! I really appreciate everyone’s continued support of this blog, and hope to hear from you soon with your contributions to our special one-year anniversary edition of the Virtual Poetorium!