Poet of the Month Award

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   Jodahposted 11 years ago

   Because it is difficult for poets to write a poem with over 800 words it is difficult to get poetry hubs up to the suggested word count standard in order to be classed as "evergreen", and therefore have little opportunity to be considered for 'Hub of the Day' or 'Editor's Choice' awards, or contests like 'HubPot challenge", I think it would be a good gesture by HP if they would introduce a 'Poet of the Month' award as an encouragement for the many poets who are part of this community but who often feel a little undervalued.
   I realise there is currently a 'Poet of the Year' award along with 'Funniest Hubber' etc, but we need more frequent acknowledgement that our writing is valued. I also know that poetry hubs don't generate the amount of traffic as 'how to' and 'recipe' hubs and the like, but we do put a lot of effort in, and poetry is in fact harder to write successfully. We also have to add other prose and photos to our hubs to try and give them a score high enough to not pull our overall score down and so they stay featured. So please HP, give us some encouragement. A monthly award would do that.

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I now give you Hubber Poet of the month, Jodah, for this great idea. I think it would be an excellent incentive. And I so agree with you that poets work really hard to enhance the hub in order to pass QAP and get a decent score that will not pull our overall hubber score down. My hubber score dropped 2 points today because of the poem I wrote for the challenge. The hub I wrote for Frank's challenge scored a 68 and most of my hubs score much higher in the beginning. I am really upset about that.
      
      I am so glad you started this thread, because I have been thinking about doing the same thing. There are some very fine poets of high quality here on HP. I would write a lot more poems if they were seen for what they are, which is a very creative effort to keep poetry alive.I had a dozen or so poems on HP and removed most of them when it all changed and poetry went down the ranks.  When we look back at the greatest writers in history, they were poets who created master works of art.
      
      I know it is not just HP who downgrades poets, but Google also ranks poets low. Yet, something has to be done to change this. I am considering creating a new HP account for poetry only. Then they can rank it as they like -- while I enjoy writing what I love.

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         Faith Reaperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, mine dropped two points too for participating in the challenge.  I think if HP has the topic of "Poetry" and "Creative Writing" then they should not drop the score for publishing a poem, as poems are writing, and really writing at its best.  Jodah, you have come up with a great idea here!  I think writing from the heart is what writing is all about anyway. When I first joined HP that is all I wrote were poems and such, and now I throw in a How To Do Something Hub to just maintain score. I am not a true poet in any sense of the word, but there are hundreds who are and I do love reading poetry. I wonder why they have the topic of poetry if they are not going to acknowledge them the same as other articles and such, so why have the topic?  I know that the bottom line is money, but the site encourages those to publish poetry, but then they are not acknowledged.  I like your ideas!

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I think us poets should start a club and let our muses explode with words of beauty, expression, love, faith, inspiration, whatever comes to our hearts and souls.
      
      POETS UNITE AND DEMAND THE ENCOURAGEMENT AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WE DESERVE TO CONTINUE GIVING THE WORLD GREAT WORKS OF ART. YES !!!!  PLEASE DO NOT LET POETRY DIE.

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   Jodahposted 11 years ago

   Thank you Phyllis, I know there are so many other hubbers here who feel the same way. I love your suggestions, especially a 'Poets Unite' club to let or creative poetic spirit flow. As you say maybe the other alternative is to start another account and just write from the heart without worrying about scores. Hopefully this forum attracts a lot of comment. Can you imagine a world without poetry? I don't want to.

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I really think we should load up that Poetry category, Jodah. I hope this thread gets a lot of comments, too. Thank you for starting this.

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   Patsybellposted 11 years ago

   I like the idea of Poet of the month. There could be a badge for that.
   
   I'm no poet. Although if I ever wax poetic it is in April or May. Honestly, I did not even know there were so many poets here on HubPages until this month.
   
   While I'm amongst the poets, I do have a dilemma. On the rare occasions I Hop Hubs, I sometimes land on poetry pages.
   
   What to do? What to do? I am hardly qualified to evaluate this art and talent.
   
   Is there any way a writer or journalist can intelligently contribute or comment on poetry?

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      Jodahposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You don't have to be a poet to appreciate it Patsybell, so there is nothing to stop you from reading various poetry hubs and commenting, especially if you find a poem funny or inspirational. We can take constructive criticism too, but I rarely leave an adverse comment. If I don't like something I just don't comment or vote it up. If you enjoy it vote up and leave a kind comment...no problem. There are so many different types of poetry on here and I'm sure something to appeal to everyone. Check out a few different poets until you find one who's work you can relate to and follow them. Most of us don't just write poetry either. I am a Permaculturalist so I also write hubs about organic gardening, saving the planet, danger of GMOs etc, but poetry is my first love and I will continue to fight for it.
      If you come across a poem while hub hopping and the title appeals give it a look. Most poems aren't overly long and don't take too much of your time to read.

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   calculus-geometryposted 11 years ago

   Staff could pick 10 or so creative writing hubs each month and have users vote for the best one, similar to the Rising Star hub award.  Maybe have separate awards for fiction and poetry.

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      Jodahposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Sounds like a good suggestion to me calculus-geometry. That wouldn't take too much effort from the HP staff, and we should be judged by our peers I agree.

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         Phyllis Doyleposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I agree with both of you. We should be judged by our peers. calculus-geometry, creative writing of short fiction is another category that is ranked down on. I have seen far too many good writers and poets leave HP because of this.

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      RachaelOhalloranposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I like that idea calculus-geometry.

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         sallybeaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Sounds like a great idea Jodah - who knows, I may find time to put my poetry hat on.

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   jansharesposted 11 years ago

   Great idea, Jodah. I remember we talked about this a few weeks ago in another forum, can't remember which.

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