Lordoftherings• Show poetry

Peek into my private life at Celebrate My Life.com
gregg-rowe.celebration-of.com/about.aspx

or meet me at my social networks

(Click on my handsome face belowfor Facebook and the link for the social network Gather)

http://lordoftherings.gather.com/

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For Gail Young


I started writing poetry when I was 10 years old and using it as a therapeutic outlet for the sexual, emotional, psychological and physical abuse my father and his friends imposed upon me as a child.

After leaving home when I was seventeen, I travelled the world by the use of my thumb and the limited financial resources I had claimed under my name as a ...worker. In 1984, I had been living with a male lover that resulted in a physical beating and rape that nearly killed me, but I survived, only to be tested HIV positive after that incident in 1987.

For the next 20 years I would become vocal on a local, provincial, national and international levels for the rights of people living with HIV: for housing, employment, doctor care, finances, and yes, the right to have protected inhibited sex as a human being should.

I am now semi-retired from the community work after opening four community organizations for HIV/AIDS in Québec and am now pursuing my dreams of graduating from Concordia University with a Major in English Literature and Creative Writing and two minors: Minor in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality and Minor in Interdisciplinary Studies in Film.

My poetry is the reflection of life that is overlooked by politicians and speaks volumes of what society has been common to turn an eye to...the survival of those who have been abused and are still living.

I also do have a sense of humour in all this, which shows the dark side of me as well, but you will see that as I continue to write poetry for this website.

About my name Lord of the Rings , I think that it is self-explanatory being a fan of J. R. R. Tolkien and now the complete trilogy by Peter Jackson. It is also the ID I use on Yahoo along with Winnie the Pooh, Jr (being Canadian I love this bear from Winnipeg), but I also, as you notice sign my poetry with my real name Gregg Rowe.

Copy writes is very sticky issue on the internet, and this being a US site, would mean that my poetry would be marketed under the Lord of the Rings name (check the copy write signature at the bottom of each page) which is not true, my poetry is copy written in Canada under my nom de plume, Gregg Rowe.

(A secret for those who do not wish to pay copy write fees or who are cash-strapped--seal all your poetry up in a envelope and re-mail your manuscripts back to yourself--do not open the envelope, ever, the post mark on your envelope will hold up in court as the date of the copy write as long as the envelope is not opened. Better yet, fed-ex it back to yourself and place it in a safe, after you have passed away and as long as the envelope is still sealed with original post mark from the post office, your works are guaranteed for another fifty years, after that, if no family remains, it becomes public domain. This would include manuscripts downloaded on to CD-Rom disquettes and manuscripts downloaded on floppy disks...just do not open your envelope until it is in front of the judge.)

As a professional poet, I do not like to hide behind computer IDs and user names, you meet me on a whole and under no false pretenses.

And yes, that is a real picture of me taken just two years ago (2002), I used to be a professional model when I was younger to help me with my travels around the world.

ADOPT-A-POET

The Adopt-a-Poet program is a new way to open up to fellow poets on the site. It’s a chance for younger, or less experienced, poets to learn from those with more experience and/or knowledge in poetry. It will give a chance for any questions to be answered on a one-on-one and more personal basis. It will hopefully provide a chance for all poets to grow, and even gain new friends. (Follow the links below).

Program Description at All Poetry

allpoetry.com/Column/435507

Application Forms for the Adopter and the Adoptee

www.geocities.com/dreamscape_valleys/AdoptaPoet.html

You can find subsidiary links below for Adopt-A-Poet Program

Seraph 1885: The current manager for Adopt-A-Poet

allpoetry.com/poet/Seraph1885

Adopt-A-Poet Foundation

www.geocities.com/adopt_a_poet/

Adopt-A-Poet Managers

allpoetry.com/groups/adopt-a-poet%20managers

I am the proud Father of these up and coming young poets

...check out their pages and leave a few words of encouragement for them.

I Worship Amy Lee : allpoetry.com/Poets/IWorshipAmyLee

I LTL 4 eva 7 : allpoetry.com/Poets/ILTL4eva7

Jake : allpoetry.com/Poets/Jake

I am also an uncle to many here, but at this point I forget who they are my family is so well-extended. If you have IMed me in the past about being you Uncle, send me an IM to remind this memory that seems to have lapsed in cyber world. Gregg

SOME ADVICE FOR CONTEST HOLDERS

1. USE YOUR SPELL CHECK!

If I have to spell check my works three times before entering, since you are hosting the contest I expect the same consideration in return. (One very simple way of doing this is to type it on Wordpad or in Word and use you spell check right away, then copy and paste text in the appropriate box.)

2. KNOW YOUR TOPICS!

A syllable in poetry is not the same as a word and a word is not the same as a syllable. A syllable is the breakdown of the word and where the stresses go supercalofragilisticexpealadocious is a word with 14 syllables.

Know your form of poetry a haiku is 5-7-5 syllables IN JAPANESE, but manageable in English and must include a seasonal word showing human/nature, a sonnet is 14 lines with different rhyme schemes in them and different names, but basically three types: The Italian, the Shakesperean (or Elizabethean love sonnet) and, yes, the BLANK Sonnet, you get the meaning. A limerick is five lines, not four with a rhyming scheme of aabba. There is a dictionary on the website to help you find the definitions to the particular forms you wish to run in your contests.

These are the two main problems I have encountered when reviewing what contests I wish to enter. I am a poet, a serious one who takes the craft of poetry to my heart...I know that rules are made to be broken but one must know and master the rules before breaking them, and if we are not teaching the proper formats to the newcomers to start with, then how can we expect the merit of poetry to stand up on this website.

VERDICT AWARD

MONTRÉAL STANDING OVATION VERDICT

Montréal is well-known for its stuffiness in distributing their appreciation by the amount of standing ovations a performance receives. For the past few years, it has been recorded that Montréal delivers less standing ovations to their artistic performances than any other city in the world.

If a performance is well-received, the limitation of three standing ovations per performance rates in at about 75%, which leaves deserving performances perplexed at their ability to deliver onstage, and rarely, and I mean, rarely, do you give one during a performance. (I'm not sure of the number but it cannot be more than five, and by performance and artistic I mean theatre, indoors concerts at music halls, recitals in classical music...outside musical festivals and live bands are not included because we always are standing on our feet and clapping).

THIS AWARD is giving to the poems that I feel are worth not just one standing ovation but a MONTRÉAL STANDING OVATION , so if you see this message in your verdict box, you know that I more than appreciate the creativity in your work.

SPOTLIGHT POETS

What makes my list: your sense of humour, your compassion, your creativity in not only the writing of your poems but also in your comments, and most of all for just being you and making my day when I come here for some writing and good conversation. Of course this list will grow as I meet more and more of you and hope that I can spotlight you also in this space.  To see my spotlight poets, click on MY FRIENS link.


PEACECHAIN

Peace-Chain is an effort to unite people from all over the world, who share the concerns for our Earth and for Humanity as a whole.

It is an effort to propagate knowledge, understanding, acceptance, respect between the Peoples of the World, about the different races, creeds, cultures, traditions that abound on our Earth.

It is about celebrating our diversity as well as our similarities. Sharing our concerns for ourselves and the future of our Earth.

It is also an effort to underline many of the issues facing our World today and to spread any message that will help us to make our World or even our immediate surroundings and our personal lives a little better.

Peace-Chain is an ambitious project, which needs participation by more and more people. We hope that people with similar views and concerns will come and join us in our endeavour.

Reach out this day to one person with a smile or a hug,

Lend someone a ear or a helping hand today.

Make someone's day a little better and brighter,

and watch your own troubles dissolve away.

Peacelink

peace-chain.tripod.com

allpoetry.com/poets/peacechain

dumbdumbdee...that's all folks!

PS: If you wish to leave longer and personal messages for me, or send me some neat pics and backgrounds (I collect Winnie the Pooh, Betty Boop, Lord of the Rings and Unicorn memorabilia, you would really be making my day): these can be dropped off into cyberspace at gregg_rowe@yahoo.ca.