October has seen yet more evolution of the the poetry scene in Second Life®. The Written Word spent a week at Burning Life, the Azure has a new poet/host Rune Dragoone and the Criss Museum has new poetry events director to continue in its tradition of showcasing poetry events.  Also there have been plenty of new faces and new voices appearing all around the regular poetry events and this means only one thing:  the poetry scene here in Second Life® is as open and vibrant as it ever was. There are lots of projects underway including chances to  have poems published (for full details see The Apple note card) chances to have poems workshopped ready for publishing and even chances to read at special showcases like Tiatopia or the Criss. Other news is this weekend (Sat 30th October) sees the first Virtual Poet’s Open Slam Championship. Judges have been invited from Bookstacks, The Lyrical Cafe, Poetry Corner, the Blue Angel, the Chelsea Hotel, the Midnight Poets and the Written Word (though anyone may apply to judge on the night to make up numbers). The Slam is an Open competition (anyone may enter but applications must be made by noon on the day of the competition) and is to be held this Saturday 30th October at 4 PM PDT (Midnight GMT). Any style of poem may be entered and read without penalty, though the maximum time alloted per poet is a strictly timed three minutes per round. For application forms see the October’s Apple note card or IM Klannex Northmead.

Things to look forward to in November include the always fantastic Sounds of Poems events,  Tiatopia’s showcases, the Criss museum  and hopefully of course the continuation of Circe’s. Circe’s has become a Saturday poetry institution over the Summer months, I read there occasionally alongside favourites like DonJuan Writer, Stosh Quartz, Sabreman Carter, Corwyn Allen, Hope Merryman, Huckleberry Hax, Persephone Phoenix and Rosedrop Rust but big holes have opened up in the schedule between readers and I have heard the venue is in danger of closing. It would seem a pity to let the venue close because not enough poets read there in these middle hours. It might be fun to try and get some open mic going  between regular poets, certainly if we read, they will listen. Some good news is the Poets’ Plunder achieved its fundraising goals for this year. We purchased a fantastic two woman soap business, trained a female pump engineer and bought a water pump  as well as paying out the prize fund several times,  The Pirate Neko Poet Against Bad Things thanks everyone for their support and participation in the project.

The competitions section for this month is kind of interesting. There is of course the Virtual Poet’s Open Slam Championship this Saturday (30th Oct) at 4 Pm PDT (IM Klannex for an entry form,)  and the regular Apple cover competition (no entries yet for this month). The regular POZ competition is First Impressions and that remains open like the Apple cover competition until midnight on halloween night. Entering into the spirit of the season POZ is also holding a quick competition to commemorate the infamous unraveling of the gunpowder plot, this Guy Fawkes competition is open until 5th November.  Have a happy Halloween everyone.

*cheers
Klannex