Newsletter for the World of Words by Elias Tobias

Celebrate Life is May’s poetry theme

“When are we get there there? Are we there yet?  These are questions I asked of my father as he drove my family around on long trips or vacations. At one stop, he handed me a map and explained how it was used. I didn’t ask those particular questions again while traveling with my parents. The destination is not always the goal, but the trip getting there is the adventure, and life’s detours, though as first may be negative, turn out to be the best accidents ever.

Also as a child growing up, I loved to be outside playing with my neighborhood friends, and the weather had a way of spoiling things. My father must have had this saying, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain,” when he helped me out one afternoon.  I didn’t go out in the rain, though.  I looked into the closet and found a box of checkers, but no checkerboard.  Within an hour or so, he had made a regulation-sized board that was good enough for him to defeat me at several games that afternoon.  We didn’t go to the store for a new checkerboard.

All these incidents celebrate the little moments of life that have meaning.  When people like Oprah have events like the Big Give, or when a TV network has a series that promotes the construction of a house for a needy or deserving person within a week, one person or a small group can have a great influence on others lives.  This also celebrates life.  This theme incorporates other monthly themes used on the World of World by Elias Tobias, too.

There is a poem I really like, author anonymous, called Influence.

Influence

Drop a pebble in the water,
And its ripples reach out far;
And the sunbeams dancing on them
May reflect  them to a star.

Give a smile to someone passing,
Thereby making his morning glad;
It may greet you in the evening
When your own heart is sad.

Do a deed of simple kindness;
Though its end you may not see.
It may reach, like widening ripples
Down a long eternity. 

Indiana Wildflower video now on YouTube 

A new Indiana Wildflower video, less than two minutes long, has been post by The World of Words on YouTube. Go to  http://www.youtube.com/user/etobiasnew to check it out.

Poetry Contest extended

The April Poetry Contest at the World of World by Elias Tobias has been extended into May, and the theme is “Celebrate Life.”

My contest is open to anyone who wants to enter, and like the college contest, readers here can submit as many poems as you want in any style, as long as they conform to the rules as set forth in the free open poetry forum on the World of Words by Elias Tobias (see page link on right side of page). Deadline is April 30,, Wnners for the top three places and their poems along with a brief biography and optional photo (if submitted) of each winner will be announced in the May Exponet monthly newsletter. Good luck and enter often.  Send submissions to contact(at)eliastobias(dot)net.

Also I am interested in starting  a World of Words Hall of Fame for modern poets who deserved to be recognized for their accomplishments. This would go beyond National Poetry Month, but it is a good time to start it.  Those under consideration can be nominated by sending an e-mail to contact@eliastobias.net  Candidates should be established through publication and/or performance, and should have achieved a national or international presence through their work. Those inducted would be included in a special page for the Hall of Fame with a detailed biography and photograph on the World of Words by Elias Tobias web blog.  A press release will accompany each induction.

 Poem of the Month

Sounds of life 

(with some inspiration for the Beatles)

Energy …

… thousands of circles oflight
continueto collide creating aforce stronger
 thana single  element …

and the bulb glows, knowledge grows,
inventions flow and society shows its art.

Here comes the sun, and everything’s all right.