Years ago, when I was a new mother with a mild case of post partum blues and a great dose of homesickness, I wrote this poem -
SILENCE
Memories flowed
like a swollen stream
drowning the mind
with long forgotten pains
refreshing the soul
with joys back again.
Music once unheard
echoes clear
in the heart once burned with cares.
Thoughts gather and are lost,
they are distilled in a moment’s pause.
Convinced that I wrote the magnum opus of my life and that the world would be a much better place if it read my poem, I entered it in a so-called poetry competition hosted by Poetry.com. Boy! Was I glad when my poem was chosen a finalist. I was so glad, and even proud, in fact, that I did not blink when they told me that I had to cough up $50.00 to have that poem published in a book, Timeless Voices, when $50.00 was a fortune for a struggling couple like us. And more if I wanted to have my profile on the book.
After I sent in the money, I worried that the whole thing was a ruse. There were publication delays and I did not get the book on time. But I got it alright. My work was on the first page. How wonderful that was! Weeks and months later, I got other invitations for my poem to be published by London-based Noble House, or something. I also received invitations to join a poetry conference in Las Vegas where Ruben Studdard would be the guest entertainer. Woohoo! I had to decline each invitation. Sigh. I had no money.
A couple of years later, I visited the site again. It was down, closed by the Better Business Bureau for running a scam. My husband did warn me though. ”Don’t rain on my parade,” was my reply.
Shh….Let it not be said I placed my confidence on the con man.
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I have long wanted to write about this experience but somehow, it always got shelved for one reason or another. The other day, I learned that April is National Poetry Month and I was motivated to write about my Poetry scam experience again. Now, I thought that I would not be able to join Trifecta this week because the new prompt is rather difficult. Then I realized that the theme of my anecdote jives perfectly with this week’s prompt – ‘Confidence’ , i.e., 3 a: a relation of trust or intimacy
b : reliance on another’s discretion c : support especially in a legislative body.
I hope the Trifecta gang will not mind me linking a non-fiction. If this does not meet their criteria, I will not mind this being deleted from the links, or me being summoned into the ‘office’. :-D Just a thought. If this lack of inspiration continues, I might just have a biography from all the prompts. 
Thank you all for dropping by. Your comments are much appreciated. Please head over to
Trifecta: Week Twenty-Four
for some great writing.
~Imelda
