SCANSION . . .

. . . about the 2008 SENIOR POETs LAUREATE CONTEST

Welcome to GOLDEN WORDS, the online anthology featuring the winners of the 16th Annual National SENIOR POETs LAUREATE poetry competition for American poets age 50 and older. In these pages you will meet the National Senior Poet Laureate and National Senior Poet Laureate Runner Up, Senior Poets Laureate from thirty-four states, and Honor Scroll Winners whose winning poems passed the 1st Round of judging but did not proceed to the Final Rounds. Also included are three International “Diploemat” Award winners (Diploet means Diplomatic Ambassador of Good Will) and four “Golden Pen” Award honorees (two for living poets and two for deceased poets).

This year's golden poems prove the old adage, slightly revised with poetic license: We are getting older, but we're also getting better. We hope you enjoy exploring GOLDEN WORDS, which is not appearing in hard-copy chapbook format for the first time in its history. This is my first time to edit a strictly electronic publication and I am grateful for the genius, creativity and patience of webmaster Al Baker who walked me through it as he created these pages from my ideas. To navigate through the rest of this SCANSION Section, which fills you in about the contest and those who participated in it, read the prompts at the bottom of each page and click the one of your choice.