$$ and poetry

[just mercedes]

Give it up Mercedes, you know you love to hate it :p

I agree that paying for contests hurts and I don't do it myself, but I have a general aversion to arbitrary judging of poetry and won't enter into that debate because I know I'm a bit odd... however, some people see it as an investment in their publicity, which as we all know is the only way to make money these days.  Having said that, perhaps it's not unreasonable to question whether the idea that we must pay to make money is actually damaging the credibility of our art.

Try to be Vincent, and grind your own paints? He went into debt and had to paint a portrait of the shopkeeper to pay for his supplies. You're always prostituting yourself if you go outside your home zone. I write haiku in wet sand with a stick at low tide, and they're gone on a couple of hours. That makes me happy!