[Andre West]

The Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest is open to everyone whether experienced or not. This competition welcomes anyone who loves to arrange words into beautiful art or to write a short story that is worth telling. And to all who have the ability to dream. Write a poem or short story for a chance to win cash prizes. All works must be original. http://www.dreamquestone.com
Guidelines:
Write a poem, thirty lines or fewer on any subject, style, or form, typed or neatly hand printed.
And/or write a short story, five pages maximum length, on any subject or theme, creative writing fiction or non-fiction (including essay compositions, diary, journal entries and screenwriting). Also, must be typed or neatly hand printed.
Multiple poetry and short story entries are accepted.
Deadline: December 31, 2007.
All winners will be announced on January 31, 2008.
Prizes:
Writing Contest First Prize is $500. Second Prize: $250. Third Prize: $100.
Poetry Contest First Prize is $250. Second Prize: $125. Third Prize: $50.
Entry fees:
Writing Contest entry fee: $10 per short story submitted.
Poetry Contest entry fee: $5 per poem.
To send entries: Include title(s) with your story (ies) or poem(s), along with your name, address, phone#, email, brief biographical info. (Tell us a little about yourself), on the coversheet. Add a self-addressed stamped envelope for entry confirmation. Fees payable to: ("Dreamquestone.Com")

Mail entries to:
Dream Quest One
Poetry & Writing Contest
P.O. Box 3141
Chicago, IL 60654

Visit http://www.dreamquestone.com for further details, to print out an entry form or to enter online.

No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude. “And remember, in whatever you do, it’s okay to dream, for dreams do come true.” –Dream Quest One



[This message has been edited by Andre West (edited November 01, 2007).]

[Quincy Lehr]

Here's the first place entry from the last time around:

Jesus "JB" Martinez, Jr. of Del Rio, Texas -USA



( “ Get Lost ” )





You don’t need to tell me that you don’t love me anymore as it’s reading all over your face,

You don’t need to explain yourself, there’s the road, get lost

You don’t need to look back as there is nothing here for you to see, as I hang my head to cry my loudest cry, down by the waterfront as her sweet kisses did.



Not less long only her savage lies to be whipped like a dog; I was better off playing it safe reading Mad Magazines never to unfold love is only for fools thinking it will; Less and later she got fat and me and myself and I we just did not care as the years came flying like there’s no tomorrow as I made it big to create my Own ( You Idiot Magazine ) to enslave the world just like Harry Potter fans too spend there money to no end;

To attack within, going to sea just like a good monster as my aircraft just landed across the good (USA) just like a hungry beast and never mind about ( Global );



Hell, I was a good kid until she got her claws in me as only the ( President ) can lie to you never to get fired just like Paris Hilton and now they ask if she got special treatment. Do I have to spell it out for you? I am not a real doctor but I play one in TV as everything is staged; We pay them to make me look good just like in commercials as women to enjoy cleaning after those pigs with a great smile just to talk about soap; Everything shining white that was in the day of the caveman and now they feed us lies as we are close to dead just like always.

So get lost girl. La End…

And in second place...

Perfect

by Sean Ludwig

I never reach the end of a day
Where I feel I have completed it.
Nothing is done, finished
According to my own mind.
Could be better, could be more
Perfect.
A word which I will never be
Able to rightfully use.
A word which no mortal man has ever or will have enough
Time on Earth to understand.
Only in a place where age
Is non-existent, where moments
Are as eternal as the language
Of the winds- Only in a place
Where time is impossible and movement is infinite
Will perfection really take place.
And to find this place, one must
Look between two pages of a book,
Or underneath a rock where only
Earth could dwell. Then, in that
Second, perhaps one will find
A moment of perfection, and in
The reality of his own thought
Use it to make the right decision.
This, as a contradiction to what
One assumes, could be that very
Timeless place we all seek.
But maybe someday, someone will
Notice it and not let it pass by

Thinking it was just another ordinary moment.

And coming in third...

THE MOON

by Karen M. Wood

AGAINST A CLOUDLESS SKY IT ROSE
ITS LIGHT SHOWN THROUGH THE TREES
BRILLIANTLY ILLUMINING
THE BRANCHES AND ITS LEAVES.

PERFECTLY SERENE AND YET
MAJESTIC WAS ITS GLOW
No MORE TO ME A MYSTERY
FOR GOD I TOO NOW KNOW.

FOR HE HAS MADE ALL THAT WE SEE
IN HEAVENS DOME OF NIGHT
THE STARS THAT SHINE
THE MOON THAT GIVES
THE EARTH ITS NIGHTTIME LIGHT.

Perhaps I'm jaundiced, but none of these pieces strikes me as, well, very good. Is it a question of bad entries or bad taste on the part of the judges? Indeed, a panel is mentioned, but I cannot for the life of me see who is on it.

Quincy

[Michael Cantor]

This is a poetry.com type money-making scam. The same character posted in June, we had a discussion at that time, and - hopefully for good reasons - the old post shows up in a search, but appears to have disappeared from the General Announcements thread where it appeared in June.

[Andre West]

Dear Michael Cantor,

Hello, I posted a message of the Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Conest last summer and I remember our discussion. I thought you had got the point of the true merits of this competition. But apparently, you and your staff at the time didn't. Because it was one of you who deleted the announcement and replies to the previous contest. You were having problems inside the AbleMuse and some of your staff appeared to be upset about somethings going on as far as how you run the AbleMuse. Those members posted a message for all about leaving and quit. I hope you remember that. I proved the merits of my contest and I had to give your moderator a reality check on how to be professional. You should always do some checking of your facts before you call someone or something out of it's name. You may lose respect of others and a potential friend if your proven wrong. Well, you are wrong about this competition. All prize monies have been paid to all contest winners. You have seem to applied contempt before investigating your accusation of Dream Quest One being a scam or fly-by-night operation. You aren't the first to jump to conclusions, nor will you be the last. So it doesn't bother me anymore. What bothers me is that you didn't ask me about the previous contest winners or any questions about Dream Quest One before jumping on the bandwagon on discrediting this competition. I believe that was very unprofessional. However, recently I wrote a letter in response to an email to the Portland Writer, which may help you better understand Dream Quest One and what it's purpose is, as follows:

Dear Shannon,

Hello and Hi! I hope this message finds you to be of good health and cheerful. First, I want to thank you for your prompt and cordial reply to my request. I can understand your concern about Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest being a bad apple amongst the bunch. However, I must begin from it's roots. My name is Andre West, creator and founder of Dream Quest One, a poetry and writing competition. I am a writer, a poet and a dreamer who believes in his dreams and works toward making them reality. Every since early childhood I have been an avid reader, writer and lover of poetry, dearly. My mission and purpose of Dream Quest One is to inspire, motivate and encourage anyone with the desire or love or poetry and writing to continue doing so without fear of failure or success, regardless of negative criticism from ourselves or others.
On March 17, 2005 Dream Quest One went live online. It is not a large contest but a labor of love that I nurture even with my own personal resources. It is based upon integrity and honesty. For I believe, without those two components any endeavor business or otherwise will fail. However, I have been going strong and meeting my goals ever since the beginning until this day. All prizes monies collected goes to the prizes winners, and I have received some of the most beautiful letters of appreciation one can hope for. Dream Quest One uses some proceeds to maitain the website and materials need to continue running. There is no such thing as a free lunch so someone must pay down the line. I also pay taxes. Some of the previous contest winners are accomplished poets and writers to those who just started writing by inspiration and motivation. I am proud of this competition.
No one survives the web alone, I was once told. We are all in this together to be held by links. My links are strong. When I mention that WinningWriters.com has me listed in their Poetry Contest Insider, it's by reason to let you know that they don't just list any contest. Only those whose credibility checks out to be clear. I am also familiar with the Editor of Oncewritten.com, Monica Poling and Michael Shenton at PrizeMagic.co.uk. There are many other authors, poets, website owners, webmasters, and editors whom I have become familiar with throughout the past couple of year. A previous writing contest winner, Terry Weide, author of Dream of Power, Dream of Glory has won Third Prize. He has posted information about his writing works on his Author's bio section at http://www.doubleedgedpublishing.com...php?user_id=17 Also, CJ Mouser won Second Place in the 2007 Summer Writing Conest for her story titled, Mrs. Coleman and the Map of the World. She mentions it on her website at http://www.cjmouser.com/. I usually hold a contest bi-annually and the next one after the current one should run a Deadline of July 31, 2008.
Attached to this email message is a newspaper article that the previous Dream Quest One Poetry Contest First Prize Winner of $250 -Summer of 2007, Jesus Martinez, Jr., sent to me along with a letter of appreciation. An interesting thing to note is that the letter of thanks was also a poetry contest entry that he sent to Dream Quest One. Now that is outstanding, Shannon! This article was written by Claudia Hill, Staff Writer at the Del Rio News Herald in Texas, USA.
I would be honored and grateful to have announcement of the Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest included in your blog. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Best regards,
Andre L. West, editor www.dreamquestone.com

'When you let go of your dreams it can take the better part of a lifetime to catch them again. It makes more sense to never let them go in the first place. Even If they eventually pass away, at least they were yours to hold onto all the while. Better is one day with an impossible dream planted firmly in your heart, than a thousand days spent in regret over the one you gave up on.' ~Ray Basile





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From: theportlandwriter@comcast.net
To: alwest56@hotmail.com
Subject: Poetry/Writing Contest
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 21:08:16 -0700


Hi Andre, thanks for sending me the info about your writing contest for inclusion on my blog. I'm always a little leary of adding random contests I have never heard of (nothing against you personally), so if you have some type of references I can check out, that would be great.

Thanks!

Shannon L. Cheesman http://theportlandwriter.com/



[This message has been edited by Andre West (edited November 01, 2007).]

[Quincy Lehr]

Andre--

Scam or not, the winners speak for themselves, as does your attack on Michael Cantor (note the spelling on that surname). I'd note a few things that make me leery of the contest:

1. "Dream Quest" is the sort of treacly name that tends to make most of us dismiss a contest out of hand. I wouldn't want that credit beside my name.

2. The winners from the last time. They're dreadful.

3. Your MySpace site:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=713 65442

Nothing wrong with having a MySpace site per se. Lots of respectable poets, publishers, etc. have them. Yours does not inspire confidence.

4. This quote:

"And remember, in whatever you do. It's okay to dream, for dreams do come true."--Dream Quest One

It's somewhere in between Care Bears and shit and some lakefront property you've gotta see, man!

Seriously, man, if this isn't a scam and you want serious poets to take it seriously, have a fundamental rethink. And lose the Sting song on the MySpace page. It sucks.

Quincy

[This message has been edited by Quincy Lehr (edited October 31, 2007).]

[Roy Hamilton]

Andre

Those poems really suck.

Roy

[This message has been edited by Roy Hamilton (edited October 31, 2007).]

[Chris Childers]

Dear Andre,

I don't doubt your sincerity, but your contest appears, to be generous, rather naive. Given the winning entries above, your line "whether experienced or not" appears to mean "whether good at writing or not." Suffice it to say that the winning poems are not well-written, and look like the sort of thing a high school sophomore with a C+ in English would knock off in about 20 minutes. You are certainly free to give money to anyone you like for any reason you deem worthy, but understand if the more "experienced" poets here don't take your contest very seriously. It's hard to tell what you're rewarding; clearly not writing ability.

Chris

[Henry Quince]

All I’m seeing at the dreamquestone URL is a blank page.

But looking at the statements on this thread from the promoter...

if your proven wrong.
begin from it's roots
prizes monies collected goes to the prizes winners
it's by reason to let you know
Dream Quest One uses some proceeds to maitain the website and materials need to continue running.

(A drop of oil might help those materials to continue running.) But if this is typical of the illiteracy or carelessness level on the site itself, what competent writer would submit to be judged by Andre or his associates? Could that possibly be the reason the winning entries are so poor?

[Andre West]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I know that every writer begins with just one word and a dream. Even those who have written best sellers may never have thought that it would be a best seller. It starts with someone who has the courage to say what he or she thinks and feels regardless of anyone standing around to analyze and critcism whether he or she is right or wrong. Great writers sometimes start off with the most humblest of beginnings. Dream Quest One is about real people, not respect of persons and it's most definitely not a popularity contest. It is designed for those who have the ability to dream. My mission is teach anyone who may be imprisoned in their own mind or oppressed by the will of others to believe and know that "it's okay to dream". Just like marriage and college, Dream Quest One is not for everyone.

Thank you all for your colorful feedback.

Respectfully yours,
Andre L. West, editor
www.dreamquestone.com

P.S. Yes, you live, you love, learn.



[This message has been edited by Andre West (edited November 01, 2007).]

[Elle Bruno]

Switched to general announcements forum. Dee