Hello All, Damn it has been one of those weeks. I woke up this morning and was a bit worried about what I was going to write for today's issue. But much like a stage magician I pulled a article out of my hat at the last moment. I would like to inform you that last week's poem was called "Full Moon Bunny." I sort of figured it was but I didn't want to name it without her permission. I placed her bio in this week's issue since I didn't have it when we went to publication last time. The poems for this week issue are from a poetry challenge I am in. I am planning on begging the other two people who entered to allow me to publish their works next week. After I get this out I plan on spending time outside today, it is almost 50 after a cool week. So I am going to put this baby to bed and get ready for some me time. Until next time, Sheila K. Watkins Editor: Whispers of a Stone Circle See last page of this newsletter for submission guidelines, forwarding guidelines, where you can subscribe to Whispers and copyright information. ~*~*~*~ Stone Walls By Sheila K Watkins The midnight hour calls to me Haunted halls of memories Visions of what may be Clouding out the past Hear the echo as Stone walls tumble down Leaving what once had been No more wondering what might have been New life growing from barren ground Crumbled walls have tumbled down Choking dust rolls over me Stone walls have tumbled down New life covering rock strewn ground. Stone walls have tumbled down Shattered like dust and blown away Stone walls have tumbled down Walking free of shattered walls Not afraid of what will be Stone Walls ©Kathleen A Cheyney 3-13-02 The stone walls I've been up against In this life of mine, Have been of all shapes and sizes, And all have been a part of Varying degrees of standstill. The standstills might have been Just my doing, But as easily were the doings Of others trying to keep me from growing Or becoming what I thought I should be. And, yet the fault is mine, For many times I laid on the capstone of the wall, and Flung a leg over one side, then the other, Trying to decide which side I should be on. The folly of youth kept me in check In those times, When being part of the crowd meant more Than asserting myself into individual mention Because of the fear of being unique. Age has made me wiser in ways, But yet, the Complacency of tribal mentality Sticks with me now when I prize being individual, And smacks my face against the cold stones. Am I too old to dance on the wall? I gaze intensely Over each view, deciding if I should Stay on the side of safety, or risk taking a tumble Scraping my knees in the exhilaration of life. ~*~*~*~ Cool Link(s) of the week: "Healing Wishes" is a place for 1) people to post when healing is needed, and 2) others to post that they are sending healing. http://www.healingwishes.com ~*~*~*~ Caveat Emptor: Let the Buyer Beware. By Sheila K. Watkins I was taking to my student earlier this week. She was telling me about all the information on Wicca that she had printed off of the web before she met me. She was busy sorting through stuff and getting rid of the fluff and misinformation. One of the things we laughed about was she had found spells for changing her eye color and her hair color. She said at the time she looked at them and was like "WOW." (Yes she knows better now.) It made me think, I have stumbled across web pages, which I at first assumed were a joke but I realized were serious partway through. The web is a great source of information but it is also a great source of misinformation. One of the pages I stumbled across before has had the "witch's handshake." I looked at it and was wondering how in my 13 years I had missed out on the fact witch's had a special handshake. I found out later that the handshake was the same as the Mason's. I also found the eye color spell and similar things to that on the same page. I admit I bitch about various writers who have published books out there, but one thing they all have in common is there is a certain level of responsibility if for nothing else then the author's own self interest. Poisonous herbs are going to be labeled poisonous. No we are not going to guarantee you can change your eye color without the help of contacts or your hair color without the help of hair dye etc. Some of the history may be rocky, the information may be plain wrong in other places but chances are you are not going to get physically injured if you follow exercises in their books. On the net though in website as well as e-mail and message communication, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) runs rampant. I have heard of one person out there on the net who encourages people to use mandrake root in things meant for consumption. He refuses to believe that it is poisonous because it is a traditional herb used in magic. I was doing research on flying potions here a while back for a story and stumbled across some sites with recipes which yes would send you on a nice trip would also get you arrested for illegal substances or could very easily cause death. There are also people out there who will lie about their experience, their knowledge and their background. True you get this in real life also but it is easier on the net. People lie all the time here about age, sex, height, weight, color, looks so why not magical experience? How does a person know for sure if someone is telling the truth or not? I say I have been at this for 13 plus years but how does one know? Anyway, yes the web is an excellent resource but be careful, do your homework and be careful of the scam artists, if it sounds too good to be true, well chances are it is. Sites for additional information: Evaluating Internet Research Sources Robert Harris Version Date: November 17, 1997 http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm The World-Wide Web Virtual Library Evaluation of information sources http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm EVALUATING WEBSITES Here are websites dealing with the evaluation of internet resources which we have collected. Though our policies regarding the selection criteria for webpages linked from PAR-L is still evolving, these will provide some ideas about how... http://www.unb.ca/PAR-L/eval.htm Evaluating Websites The Internet, and especially World Wide Web, has become one of the most important technologies of this century. Increasingly, the "web" defines how many people get information, find entertainment, and work together. A huge investment is currently... http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/webeval/webeval.htm ~*~*~*~ Announcement(s): Please forward the body of this to as many friends, relatives, and lists as your conscience decrees. I'm counting on you guys to help me on this and spread the word far and wide. 3 weeks and counting... ------------------- As many of you are aware, Camp Gaea is involved in a legal struggle with Leavenworth County and been denied a continuation of their "Special Use Permit" for the land. While Earth Rising, the organization that manages the land, has been frugal with their funds, attorney and legal fees have been mounting. Several annual events, which take place at the camp, have had to look to alternate sites because of these tragic events. For these reasons, the Charlesworth Hostile will be holding a Fundraiser Picnic / Social. Please clear your calendar for Saturday, April 13th! Festivities will commence at noon and last until the last person has turned out the lights and shut the doors. This will not be limited to a single demographic, so please invite all your friends. While the details have not been finalized, there will be music and drink available. We are trying to arrange for picnic style food, but I can't promise anything at this time. However, if you would like to grill something in particular, feel free to bring it. For those of you who are musically inclined, please bring instruments! I know several have asked if there will be a drum circle again. Yes, but only if you all provide them! For those of you with little ones, do not hesitate to bring them. There will be games and activities to keep them occupied. The Charlesworth Hostile 701 E. 90th St. Corner of Holmes and 90th St. Kansas City, Mo. 64131 816-363-0696 Saturday, April 13th Starts at noon and lasts until whenever There will be a minimum requested donation of $5 ($10 would be better) at the door. This is a fundraiser after all. If you would like to help or provide anything, please email me at coyotemead@kc.rr.com I can use all the help I can get… JC Poetry challenge: At any rate, I think the entries are wonderful this time, but we still need more of them. Give it a try! The next working title is "Pictures". The next contest will begin as April 4, 2002 and will end on the 20th of April. We'll do a slight overlap in timing this time around. I'll have the next title for you on April 15th for the poem to be finished by the 30th. Remember, this is all just for fun. Rules: The challenge begins upon your receipt of this newsletter. You have until April 20, 2002 to send your work back to Kate at her email, which is madrigel@avalon.net. Please contact Kate if you have any questions. You may not show your work to anyone until after the challenge date has passed. (In other words, not until April 21, 2002.). All authors retain their copyright of their work. Its only publication will be among the contest participants. Any further publication of your works may occur after the challenge date only, and only by each individual poet's choice. (Editor's note: I reserve the right to beg for the poems to be submitted to this newsletter.) There you have it.... Regards, Kate ~*~*~*~ Writer's Biographies: >From last week: Arwen Nightstar aka Stephanie Lynch lives in Denver, Co with 24 birds and counting, 5 cats, 2 dogs, 2 kids, and 2 other adults. Yes, it is a zoo here. This week: Kate Cheyney began her writing career in 1967 writing human interest articles for her high school newspaper. Her articles won recognition from the Iowa High School Press Association and from the University of Iowa Department of Journalism. While raising a family, Kate worked for various local newspapers in southeastern Iowa. Writing in print media was set aside for a number of years while Kate built various businesses in local access cable television, professional dog grooming, and massage therapy. She returned to writing as a serious endeavor in 1997, and became interested in poetry as a medium of expression for the color and nuance it can provide. Kate lives in southeastern Iowa with her spouse and two English Springer Spaniels and a black cat. She is happy to have all children and grandchildren still living close by. Sheila K. Watkins knew from the time she was 15 that she wanted to be a writer but did not really start writing until she entered college where she worked on her college newspaper and also worked as the editor of the feature section for one semester. She was also introduced to the love of writing poetry at this time. Fortunately for all of us most of the poems have been lost to the world of men. After college she worked several jobs during the next few years but none included writing. It wasn't until after both of her children had started school in 1998 that she went back to her love of putting words on a computer screen. Her first submission was accepted by publication by the IOWAN newsletter and it started her on the path of truly honing her work. In October of 2000, she founded and became editor of Whispers of a Stone Circle. ~*~*~*~ Submissions are always welcomed and can be made to: Zeliziw@netins.net In submitting materials writers are agreeing that if accepted I may post them in the newsletter and on the web page (whenever I finally get back to work on it.) Works submitted must be the writer's own work and they must still retain the copyright OR it must be verifiably public domain. Works can have been published before but please nothing that has been around over and over again. Copyright remains in the author's possession. The Author also realizes that they will not be paid. (If I had money I would be hosting this on something other then Yahoo.) If a submission is accepted, I will check for punctuation, capitalization and spelling in submitted articles. I will fix minor errors if they are present. I will NOT reword things (except for an occasional "an" for "a" and vice versa.) Poems are published as submitted. Forwarding information: If you chose to forward this newsletter, do so in its entirety, including copyright and contact information. People may subscribe to Whispers of A Stone Circle at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WhispersOfAStoneCircle/ All articles, poems, etc, except where noted are copyrighted by the writers and are used with permission. They are not to be republished without the express permission of the writers. Contact information may be obtained by contacting the editor of Whispers of A Stone Circle at Zeliziw@netins.net Copyright (c) 2002 Sheila K. Watson. All Rights Reserved