Challenges Options

[Sekhmet]

Good morning to anyone who reads this.

OK - Where are all the members when the gauntlet of a Challenge is thrown dawn?
I wander about the echoing halls of the weekly, monthly, slam, short prose, and drabble sections - and see only the same names, week after week.
It is now a cosy little corner, for just a few of us - but we need new blood to survive, and what better time than Halloween to go out and hunt for it?

Why not have an extra condition placed upon all members, (apart from the two responses to other writers' poems for each poem published) -
A response to at least one of the challenges every second month. That's sixty-odd days to think up some kind of response!

These Challenges stimulate the mind into branching off at a tangent; and are important tools in our poetic arsenal. I am amazed at what turns up, unbidden, when working on a challenge.

Surely, all the members are capable of meeting at least one of the challenges every couple of months? If not- they need assistance from the more experienced writers to achieve the required result.
When Newbies, (such as myself) squeaked;
' I know nothing about poetry criticism - I couldn't possibly crit anyone else's work.'
We were all briskly told to look at other members' crits, and do your best; you'll soon get the hang of it.

Why not give exactly the same advice to anyone who baulks at answering a Challenge? Just as in the various critical sections - the standard of work will vary,from writer to writer - but we are all learning, all the time. New Challengers will get bolder as time passes, and who knows what might be drawn forth?.

Leo

[Sekhmet]

Good morning Steve, I believe that we certainly could, indeed should, insist that our all members respond to an occasional challenge.

After all, insisting on a response to other poets' work served to drive away only the dilettantes; those who were pretending to write poetry, or interested only in publishing their own work.

Before joining MM, I was, for a very short time, a member of another poetry group, where one member was publishing lines from the back catalogue of Tammy Wynette's songs!! I am sure that Cleo would have spotted the impostor at once - and chucked a lightning bolt in her direction! But I feel that responding to the Challenges would authenticate the writer's integrity - anyone can find, and indeed publish, an obscure piece - written by an unknown poet. But the challenges would be almost impossible to fake.
.
A few, 'beginners' challenges' - asking for either :

(a) a poem on a set subject.
(b) a few verses, written in a simple poetic form.
© a poem in any form,using two or three, 'given words'

should not be a problem for anyone with a genuine interest in writing poetry.

The Members' List seems to be full of non- participating members. Maybe the pruning sheers are needed here? Anyone who has contributed nothing over the last three months, (without an explanation) should be removed. They can always re-apply for membership.
I am beginning to feel that I am like a character in the film ZULU; wherein, a small group of Welsh Guards, (in the siege of the garrison at Rorke's Drift), tried to fool the Zulu leader into believing that there were hundreds of soldiers still alive when, in fact, there were only a few left standing.

You take care too,
Hugs, Leo