So poety.com has this poetry contest where they invite all the wanna-be poets on the web to send in a poem and then they turn it into a big ol book and publish it, then charge 50-70 bucks a copy to the “poets”.
Well, this time around I’m one of those “Poets.” 
I have no delusions about the contest, but it’s still neat to see that my name is gonna be printed somewheres.
They say I’m one of the semi-finalists, so I’ll keep y’all posted on how it goes.
If anyone cares, I submitted Icarus: http://www.madpoet.com/cgi-bin/pscript.pl?icarus
because they seem to like symbolic poems, and that is as symbolic as I get.
Now I just have to figure out what to submit this time around…
http://www.madpoet.com
“I never meant to hurt you,” you said,
And buried yourself in lies instead.
Next time I would rather be slain,
Than forced to bear your mercy again.
I remember reading an article about one of these “poetry books” in the newspaper. Basically, the columnist sent in a poem in which every last word in the line was “Pumpkin” as in:
I love you, my pumpkin
You’re sweet as a pumpkin
If desire were a pumpkin,
You’d be the pumpkin
Suprise, suprise, he was written back to in a form letter saying that his poem was excellent for inclusion into their volume and they were sure he’d want to buy a few copies at $75 a pop for friends and family. Oh, and they’d need for him to buy at least one copy for his poem to be included to cover the printing costs.
It’s your $50 I guess, but if you really want to see your name in print, send me $25 and I’ll send you a print out with your name on it 
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
I just said I knew it was a scam, don’t deflate my already frail ego!
But, no, it’s going in the book whether I send them money or not. According to their little letter. I can pay $25 to tell the world about my poem though. Bleh!
http://www.madpoet.com
“I never meant to hurt you,” you said,
And buried yourself in lies instead.
Next time I would rather be slain,
Than forced to bear your mercy again.