One of the oldest scams ploys in the publishing industry is to run a short story/poetry/essay contest, announce that everyone's a winner, and subsequently publish a volume of the "winning" entries. Which just happens to be on sale for the low low price of $19.95 (or some such fee).
Now I'm not saying that poetry.com would be guilty of trying to exploit the dreams of aspiring writers in order to make a quick buck, but... oh, where was I? I digress.
Seems that Dave Barry (your friend and mine) is suggesting that people submit poems to the site containing a certain classical poetic phrase.
Hours of fun, guaranteed. See if you can find mine!
im boycotting dave barry
i lost a column to him once
was just a lttle fun op-ed for lil itty bitty upstate new york paper
that oh 5,000 people read
they dumped me cause
dave barrys syndicated column was cheaper
and more PC
damn it
hey dave
why cant you give some of us
poor writer shmos a break
oyy
anyway
im on strike
wont read him
and i dont care how funny he is
or is not
until he pays me back
by throwing me one of his columns
either that
or
hm
a new fall ensemble
if you talk to dave
can you pass this on for me
thanks
I gave up trying when the instructions asked for the 4th time whether I would like to see the next 100 entries. I refuse to read over 500 poems about overly carniverous canines consuming the corns of their mama.
You'll have to give us a clue...
Ok, I wrote under the nom de plume Freemont Igor Misanthrope.
I like what "Freemont Led Zeppelin" contributed...
Oh ho ho.
The toes they were lined up in rows,
The bits of Fritz had fits,
And Fenris eats his mother.
Woo hoo. Good stuff there, Igor...