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TheReview Wednesday, July 17,1991 — A13

POETRY

Continued from Page A11

“I want you to know I love you
as a poet and want to see you
succeed beyond your dreams,” she
wiites. “I believe in you.

AS a poet, I know how import-
ant recognition can be, from fam-
ily and friends, editors, even pos-
terity.”

World of Poetry hands out a lot
of recognition. According to the
company’s newsletter — a glossy,
publication studded with celebrity
photos and touting World of Poetry
contests, conventions and products
— there were 165,000 Golden
Poets and 165,000 Silver Poets in
1989.

Fine print on the back of one
certificate reveals the Golden Poet
awards are given to those who have
entered a contest during the year
and received a prize or an honora-
ble mention — and Silver Poet
awards are given to those who have
not entered a contest that year, but
who have entered in the past.

The fine print also reveals 70 to
90 per cent of the poems entered
receive awards.

“What is the Golden Poet
Award? Like I say to the media:
The Golden Poet Award is to poets
what the Academy Award is to
actors. It is the highest honor
World of Poetry ever bestows on a
poet, Cole explains in one of her
Poetrygrams, which also urges the
Golden Poet to attend World of
Poetry’s annual three-day conven-
tion.

Local poet Pearl Hall has never
attended the convention, despite

the lure of award presentations,
recognition as a celebrity, a televi-
sion interview with World of
Poetry publisher John Campbell
and the chance to win the conven-
tion poetry contest and be crowned
1991 poet laureate in a Miss
America-style ceremony.

To attend, Hall would have to
pay her own travel costs and hotel
accommodation plus a convention
registration fee of $495 US.

Even if Hall does not attend the
convention, she can still receive
her Golden Poet plaque by sending
$100 to World of Poetry.

But she will miss the stars
engaged for the convention: Min-
nie Pearl, Rita Moreno, Sid Caesar,
Porter Wagner, the “‘world-
famous” Natica Anglilly Poetic
Dance Theatre Company and pub-
lisher Campbell, a former actor
who performs at each convention.

But World of Poetry doesn’t end
with competitions and conven-
tions. World of Poetry Press offers
a book-publishing service for
poets, all explained in a $10 per-
sonalized publishing: kit

Or World of Poetry will help the
aspiring poet improve his or her
writing with two books by Cole,
Now Techniques for Today's Poets
and Workshop Critiques, available
in paperback for $19.95 USS.

Finally, the aspiring poet can

join Cole’s four-day on-board .-

cruise workshop off the California
coast. Double occupancy is $818
US.

“Bless you,’ Cole writes in
closing her letters.

Polio victim turned to poetry

For 71-year-old Pearl Hall,
World of Poetry was a place to
send her work — poems about
nature, about God, about her fam-
ily and about her determination to
succeed despite the polio which
left her in a wheelchair almost 30
years ago.

She started writing and painting
after her illness, when she was no
longer able to do the heavy work
of running a house and raising
seven children.

Encouraged by a correspond-
ence course in creative writing and
a night school course, she joined
the Victoria branch of the Cana-
dian Authors’ Association and
won some local poetry competi-
tions.

to

en
Baggott

Sidney Safeway

Employee of
the month

DONGRATULATIONG

Her art work, entered in the
Pacific National Exhibition by one
of her daughters, was awarded a
plaque in 1972.

In 1979 she moved to Sidney,

Continued on Page A31

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