Michael’s Comments (group member since Jul 09, 2014)

Michael’s comments from the EPITAPH Writing Contest (with a FREE BOOK PRIZE!) group.

Daniel, Tina, and Wilson: Please send your full name, mailing address, and other contact information including email to: JMH@press.jhu.edu

Right away, Thanks!

Michael W.

A note from the Epitaph Writing Contest: We are in the process of identifying our three Contest winners. Once they are announced, here and on the John Hopkins U Press Blog page, we will need contact information and mailing addresses for the winners.

Thanks for your patience, everyone!
More shortly,

Michael (For the Awards Committee)

Wilson, you win the laurel for timing with less than 30 minutes to go: a new epitaph! Many Thanks!

Tina, thank you for your epitaphs. I'm enjoying them both. We have 30 minutes left, by Pacific Time, just enough time for anyone else out there in the aether to send us one or more final final words. As for the demise of the Epitaph Contest, I suppose I may say, with Tina: "Do not mourn me...I have lived." Good night.

Michael

Dear Contestants: Today ends the third week of receiving epitaphs for the contest. If anyone would like to squeeze one more epitaph under the door, we'll keep the contest open until 1 minute to midnight, Sunday evening, August 3rd.

Once we've gone through all the submissions, we'll decide upon the 3 winners, one for each week, and post an announcement with brief commentary on the Johns Hopkins University Press blog site and here.

Many thanks to everyone for participating. We did eventually get up to speed with a healthy number of submissions on the third week. It's been a pleasure! .

Michael

Thank you for these epitaphs two.

Thanks, Sherry, for sending this epitaph: The deceased's voice is audible, rhymed, speaking mainly in monosyllables, and offering the reader consolation in the last line...everything a good epitaph should be doing.

De nada.

Oops. If you speak the final syllable of Uruguay as a long i sound, (aye)
then Daniel's submission of July 29 is a rhymed epitaph too.
In that case, Wilson's rhymed epitaph is the second rhymed epitaph.
Jut trying to keep the record straight! : >)

Michael

Our first rhymed submission! Thanks, Wilson.

Daniel,

Thank you for this flurry of epitaphs!

MBW

Thak you, sir! A medical doctor should know this subject well. glad for your insights.

Thanks, JoJo. I find here verses celebrating a writer, a poet, getting his words together. You might want to take a look at the "How to write an Epitaph" under the "Discussions" button on the site. The epitaph is a "form". It requires a topic-- the deceased. It can be in the voice of a passerby or in the voice of the deceased herself. I tried to talk about all this in "HOw to write an epitaph." I find I learn most about writing poetry by reading the best examples you can find. It's "Finding your voice," not over-thinking about it. Send your experiments!

Daniel Abdal-Hayy wrote: "The farewells of others he read
sobered his years
until a bower of peace
surrounded him"

This epitaph seems to remark on the therapeutic or "sobering" effect of reading other people's epitaphs ("farewells"); the "bower of peace" appears to be a result-- making peace with the fact of mortality by experiencing it in the words of others gone before.

Thanks, Jojo. Passionate imagery. I especially like 'the drummer in my chest.' It reads more like an expectant love poem than an epitaph, but to quote your poem, "It makes no difference."

thanks, Daniel! An epitaph capturing the moment of recognition.

Thanks, Daniel, for this fleeting image.
Michael

Thank you, Rafael. Yours is the first submission. We'll gather together all the submissions from this week and the winner will be announced in August. There will be a winner for each week-- 3 winners in all, and they will be published on the Johns Hopkins blog. I hope there will be lots of good submissions. If so, I'll try to write a blog post in August that incorporates all the outstanding ones, as well as the very few winners. Stay tuned. By the way: I placed some "tips" for writing epitaphs on the Discussion Board too. You can submit more than once, but only once with each email. Sincerely, Michael W.

Thanks for visiting the Epitaph Writing Contest. Tell us something about yourself and your interest in writing and reading.

Use this discussion thread to submit your epitaph between 7/14 and 7/20.