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The Second Place winner of Anglican Beach Party's 2009 Anglican Poetry Contest is Virginia Crosswhite Hyde. Two of her poems appear below.        UNWED MADONNA Behold the girl madonna-yet-to-be, Not Raphaelite, no halo on her hair, No willing curve of arms that wait to bear The unknown child who comes relentlessly. No, rather, she is angry with the life She shares with the fierce alien within, The maggot in her flesh that would have been Her own loved image--if she were a wife. How pensively she stands, how pale and young: She does not rave, she does not even cry. Her brain thuds heavily, "To die! To die!" Yet even her child will not arrive unsung. Some hour her love will throb like blood to greet The unknown atom pulsing in the womb And, as her flesh cocoons him from dark doom, Her heartbeat will be music, sad and sweet. And this will be her child's...

The First Place winner of Anglican Beach Party's 2009 Anglican Poetry Contest is Fr. Lennart Pearson. Four of his poems appear below. MESSY DESK The sound of bells and clicking clocks mark the receding movement of the mass and pebbles on my desk. I pass along moraines of memos, minutes, fill fossil folders, check dinosauric data, page through the paper strata, sift the verbal till, sedimented miscellany of a new ice age, in hopes of finding bedrock. Once, I recall, I saw a jagged thrust of outcrop in a field – it was Gibraltar in Wisconsin , and all plowing ended at its edge. Likewise, concealed beneath these coffee stains and half-bent Paper clips, the formica surface awaits a fiery eruption of volcanic thought, sent up to consume the clutter. The trash abates. -- Fr. Lennart Pearson MR. CHIP “Something grand is coming!” So says the sign announcing the new conv...

The results of the 2009 Anglican Beach Party 2009 Anglican Poetry Contest have been published. LINK to Contest Results page. We had a very nice collection of entries to work with, and we thank all the poets who took the time to enter! Prizes for the top three entries will be sent by mail this week. I will be contacting the winners of the Honourable Mention prizes, to determine the appropriate T-shirt size to send. Poems from all prize winners will also appear here on this blog over the next several days.

The 2009 Anglican Poetry Contest judging has been completed. We are now working on formatting the winning entries for internet publication. An entry here, announcing the winners, should be along soon!

The History of The Dragons and why Dragon Tattoos Are So Popular By Becky McClure According to the Webster-Merriam Dictionary, the word dragon is Middle English, from Anglo-French dragun, from Latin dracon. The definition of dragon is: • A mythical animal usually represented as a monstrous winged and scaly serpent with a crested head and enormous claws. • Or someone who is formidable The many depictions of dragons are incredibly diverse and complex. No other creature in mythology has appeared in so many cultures from such remote parts of the world! Many of us think of dragons as a terrifying beast. However, the Eastern dragons are portrayed as good, kind, ancient and intelligent. The Asian Dragons have the most recorded history in the world, especially in China going back thousands of years. The Difference between the Eastern Dragons: Chinese dragons have all five toes. The Chinese believe that all dragons began from China. They believed that as the dragons flew south, they began to lo...

Tree Tattoo Pictures By R. Dercks Tree tattoo pictures are not very common. Are they? Not many people will be having tree tattoos. Have you wondered why it is so? That is because trees have a great significance in many Asian and African cultures. It also has links with Celtic history. The meaning of tree tattoo pictures is linked with all these cultures and the impact and significance is so strong that many people prefer not to get it. Now if you are thinking that you see so many girls with different flower tattoos like roses, daisy, lily, sunflower and leaves like shamrock and others. Are they not tree tattoo pictures? NO! They are not. They are flower tattoos. I am talking about a tree as in whole. So here are some popular tree tattoo pictures for you! The most popular one is the cherry tree tattoo pictures. This female-only tattoo is a symbol of sexuality and beauty but not in literal terms. This tattoo gets its meaning from the Japanese cherry blossom which is a symbol of life whic...

Koi Fish Tattoos - Meanings By Chris P Marks The image of the koi fish is often used in tattoo designs not just because of its obvious elegance and vibrant colors, but more because of the symbolism surrounding it. "Koi" is simply "carp" in Japanese, but the expensive fish that we are all familiar with are carp that have been especially bred since ancient times in China. This special breeding has produced the multi-colored varieties of koi fish that people now collect. Koi are vigorous fish that can swim upstream. An old Chinese legend tells of koi brave enough to swim up the waterfalls of the Yellow River, and that any fish that could reach the point in the river called "Dragon Gate" would turn into a dragon. While the fish originated from China, it is the Japanese who have made it a household name. The koi is a celebrated symbol in Japan-mostly associated with exceptional courage. It is said that this fish, if caught and placed on a cutting board, can lie...