Greetings Pubbers,

Love is in the air!!

I know it is a cliche, but it is true. Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I believe some love poetry is in order. So let's see what we have come up with for you this month.

Everyone grab your drink and get settled in, we will start with announcements.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Let's start off with the winner of our January 2017 contest, "Our Pub"! I believe our first contest was a wonderful success and we had some extraordinary entries. A big round of applause for everyone who entered.

First some honorable mentions:

Truly Poets Pub by cyberball94
The Poet's Pub by D_W_Christian
Poets Pub by ruminat
Fly By Pub by Andrewagreen
The Pub by AmbergrisJane

DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

Our First Place Winner Is

Make Yourself at Home - by - MichaelTyger

This poem truly captures the essence of what the Pub is and paints a beautiful picture of how it might look.

Congratulations! Michael is now eligible to participate in the 2017 Pubber of the Year competition. A big thank you to Michael and everyone who entered!!

POEM-A-DAY:

Our Poem-A-Day challenge has entered it's second month. For anyone who has not taken on this challenge, this would be a great time to start. Remember to use the hashtag #PPpoem-a-day and send us a Private Message so that we can send you the link for the participation sticker.

Poem A Day Challenge - 2017
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/LTEVSTLvTz

NOTICE:
We need all participants of the Poem-A-Day to send us another poem for the Pub's Collection.

PUBBER INTERVIEWS:

The second Pubber Interview has been published. This interview is with the lovely sonakshisrivastava who is an intrical part of the Pub daily operations. Take a moment and find out more about Sona and show her some Poets Pub love.

Pubber Interviews
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/y277aKCmiA

PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

I am happy to announce that I was approached by the editors of a new Wattpad magazine, TRUTH MAGAZINE, to be one of their staff writers. The first issue was published on February 1, 2017 and it includes my first article, Love Poetry Through The Ages. I would be truly honored if everyone to check it out and let me know what you think. You can find it here:

@TruthMagazine
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/9ihSZOxnsA

OPEN SUBMISSIONS:

For New Members:

poeTRY
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/fWPk7NawTz

10 Things About Me
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/bwOvuPewTz

For ALL Members:

All You Need is Love - February 2017 Contest
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/vYuAACpnsA

Pub Chatter Poetry Prompts
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/MKzIiX7JgA

Family Treasures
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/nKeUJYJKgA

Moon Limerick
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/COTta7wKgA

Tanka/Haiku/Senryu
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/VtWGNayLgA

We have several other collections that are open for submissions, if you have any questions about any of our collections, please do not hesitate to ask!

As always please Private Message any entry you wish to share to @PoetsPub and be sure to include the name of the collection you want it added to, your screen name and the title of the poem.  For a complete list of Pub rules and regulations see "Behind the Bar" which can be found here:

Behind the Bar
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/WNPV0gm58y

Personal Announcements:
Finally remember to send us any personal announcements you would like me to include in the Chatter, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, etc.  Just message me here at the Pub and I will be sure to get it in the Chatter.

OLD BUSINESS:

We are continuing our members drive, 6k by Valentine's Day. We are only about 400 members away from our goal. I believe we can do it!! I challenged everyone last week to personally invite 5 Wattpaders to join the Pub, I am issuing the challenge again! Let's go Pubbers we can make this the best and biggest Poets group on Wattpad.

NEW BUSINESS:

Our February 2017 Competition is under way and it is all about LOVE! This month everyone is invited to submit up to three (3) poems, only one per week, on the subject of someone or something you love.

The first poem must be 20 lines or less and must be an original (not posted on Wattpad before) and the other two may be ones that you have posted in your own collections before (but not in any of the previous Pub collections).

All of the information for this month's competition can be found here:

All You Need is Love - February 2017 Contest
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/vYuAACpnsA

MYNA'S MUSINGS:

To continue with our theme of Love, I would like to pose the question - Why do we write love poetry? There are the obvious answers, to express our feelings, to show someone you care about them, to remember a lost love. But what is it about the written form of poetry that makes it so suitable for the expression of love? Do we use poetry as a mask to hide behind? Sometimes, yes. What makes it different from a love letter? Those are just a few of the questions I have been pondering as I have been researching the history of love poetry. Enough of my questions, how about some prompts.

PROMPTS:

#1 - Write a love poem that you would like to receive. Don't write one to yourself, but put yourself in the mind of someone who would be in love with you, who is or was in love with you. Write what you would want them to say to you. What do you long to hear?

#2 - Write a love poem WITHOUT using the words - love, heart, cherish, soul, and passion.

DOWN AT THE SALOON:

Things are heating up in Busted Gulch over at the storytellers-saloon . Our dear friend Ruechari has a full library of great short stories, you are sure to find something to interest you. Head on over and tell her MystresMyna sent you!

Busted Gulch Vol. 3
http://my.w.tt/UiNb/qKQ1BoI3py

Well that wraps this up for this week. It is my sincere hope that all of you will have a safe and relaxing weekend.

Please stick around as long as you like. We have many new members, so find one and introduce yourself, chat, swap stories and as always the drinks are on the house.

Cheers from your Mystres of Chatter
MystresMyna

~~~~~~~~~~

Bill here ....

We currently have 4 Legacy Collections in our Library here at the Poets Pub.

Bill Temple, ElizabellaJones, lyttlejoe and Richard Higley.

These are collections of these poets Poems,not only from here at the Pub, but also selected titles from their own collections.

If you want to add a thought or comment to any of these collections, please send it in to us via private message. It could be as simple as a few lines celebrating the inspiration that either of these poets offered you, or a Poem singing their praise.

~~~~~

Member Drive

I am challenging all members to invite just one of your friends to join us here at the Pub. If just 10% of our members did so, we could hit 6000 in one day. So lets all ask just one person.

~~~~~

Michael Tyger

Congratulations to Michael on winning our fist competition of the year.

Michael is a first time contributor to our competition, which goes to show that experience is not always a winning factor. Michael's poem was a wonderful example of that.

Three cheers for Michael.

~~~~~

On a personal note, I have decided to take the Poem a Day Challenge above and beyond.

I have personally challenged myself to write 2000 poems this year, in the various collections on my own site. I really don't expect anyone to accept this insane challenge, but ...

no one ever accused me of being sane or normal.