What's really cool, are those poetry contests. You know. You submit a poem and then you get some congratulatory speech about how great your poetry is and how wonderful your accomplishments are and how you should be really proud. And then they slam you with the "special offer." I don't know what silly people actually cough up over a hundred dollars to buy a book that has *a* page that actually contains one of their own published poems. Then they get all excited because they've been published. But do they win anything? It's a contest right? I've gotten a lot of congratulations, but I've never won anything. I don't even know if my poetry is any good, because the only people telling me their opinions about it are close friends (who are, for the most part, going to be nice) and these organizations who want to sell me superexpensive "anthologies." And it's not like you can find any of these anthologies anywhere else. So it's not like real people might glance at my poetry. Just other hack poets who think their work is important. I keep entering the contests, just to see if anything ever comes of it, and on the unlikely chance that my little work might get noticed, but really, the overpriced crap they sell is insulting.