I voted to publish.
It's so sad to me that these animals can't be treated with respect.  Just because they are being used for what they are being used for does not mean that they shouldn't be treated humanely and respectfully.  It's simply heartbreaking.

Your sense of compassion has not been lost.
While describing this farm animal holocaust.

Thanks so much for voting for my poetry, it was really appreciated!!!
I already voted for you at the beginning of the vote, but thanks for leaving your poetry link because I like to look at other people's poetry and return the favor!

voted

I suppose the message along earns this a vote, but they are also well written ... good luck ...

I love the one about pigs and hens.  I so want to put this issue into the meat of my story- a motivating force that has a group of characters justify something...why mention all of the meat lol?  Just wanted to say how much I AGREE.

I drank milk yesterday, it was whole milk, and the taste of it reminded me of a baby suckling on its mom...and, then, a cow calf on its mom.  I felt so bad.  I so understand the last one, too. 

I'm late lol because I was SURPRISED so many came by my own 3 poems, for I never went off asking people to check it out. I thought it'd die off sometime. Thanks to you for doing so!  Publish...

i like the poems, they really have a lot of thought in them. its an interesting subject you touched

Your poems are very truthful and touch on points that a lot of people don't realize. I worked in a chicken barn that had 200,000 chickens crammed into tiny cages and that was just my barn. they only used them for their eggs and killed all the roosters and birds that couldn't produce eggs. It's a prettty sad deal and I didn't work their for very long. However I still do find myself eating meat. But sometimes I find myself thinking about the things you just mentioned. Very good. You got my vote.

Fantastic poems. They're definitely fit to be published, but maybe in another publication...in fact, I think they deserve a book all to themselves. A yes vote, though. Good luck. :)

An unusual theme. But a strong message. I agree with johntucker's comment. I doubt your poems will be published here. But approach someone like animal rights. You have something to say. Good luck!

I say publish! If not for its poetry, for its content. It's about time people wake-up to the fact that we abuse animals and are - more than ever, in the history of the world - cruelly exploiting them. We are ungrateful sons of bitches that do not respect other kind of life but our own - and not even that.

In this technological age we have devised the most efficient and inhuman ways to exploit these poor creatures of God, and of Earth. We share this planet, we are sisters and brothers.

To you Jenny I say do not despair. I did once, as Elizabeth Costello in Coetzee's book 'The Lives of Animals'. Despair does not produce results, only sadness to you and those around you. Action is the way. Take advice from that wise guy Johnny Tucker and join some animal welfare group and act, to bring change.

I've been long fighting to get rid of caged hens, distributing pamphlets in supermarkets, at uni, wherever there is a market, and a stall for 'Free Range' eggs and the end of the supply of this tortured eggs and tortured chickens in cages, the battery chickens - forced to be awake 24 hours a day to give us more eggs. And for our consumption! No wander we are sick. The Avian flu and the rest of the epidemics is nothing more than universal punishment. Life has a way of letting us know what we are doing wrong.

But you'll see, dear Jenny, that slowly things will change. We have the power to change the world, people has only to know what's going on.

Good luck to you Jenny!

Excellent, work. Tears had formed in my eyes by the end of the first poem. Thanks you for checking out mine and good luck with the vote.

I sympathise with everything you write - if people had to kill the animals themselves there would be many more vegetarians in the world.
You have a natural way with words and express yourself really well but I fear that it is unlikely these will be published.  The subject matter is too controversial.
Why don't you approach someone like animal rights etc they should grab these with open arms.
Thank you for reviewing my project - after reading yours I feel helpless and angry, leading to frustration.  Good luck with your work.
Kind Regards  John xox

publish , :)

General:
Great poems all in all.  I really enjoyed them.

Form:
I'd love for the poems to have some structure-some stanzas to give the reader a break and chunks to think about at a time.

Cunning and very well written.  Yes vote from me.

I think that these poems are a protest, however, they are not as effective as they could have been. At the moment, it seems as if you stand from a pulpit yelling at us - when you could be showing us instead.

With the use of more images, and possibly a different perspective (the animals perhaps), I think you could pull in a lot more emotion and add gravity to these works. For instance, with PSAs, the more graphic ones tend to pull on heart strings more than a slogan that says just don't do it.

I hope that helps. Thanks for the earlier vote and good luck!

These are very good poems. The only suggestion I would make would be to break the lines into "stanzas"

How would you like it if right from the start,
Right from the day of your birth,
You were never allowed to have even one glimpse
Of this beautiful glorious Earth.

Not ever a glimpse of the sun or the sky
The grassy green meadows or trees,
Deprived of all knowledge of beauty and colour
Of raindrops and sweet summer breeze.
  etc ...

and the other is that you put the footnote at the VERY bottom like so :









Authors' Footnote:

Each year billions of factory farmed animals are forced to spend their entire lives in small cages, pens and crowded sheds They are painfully mutilated and denied all semblance of a natural life. The majority are denied even one glimpse of their beautiful world.

Great Write!

great poetry from the heart. voted

Jenny, I will give proper feedback after the vote.  Your enthusiasm for the cause does you credit.

I thought that your poems are more preaching. It is true that cruelty to animals ought to stop.  Keep up your crusade.

Great poems! Poor, poor animals. They really made the reader feel sympathy towards them. Keep up the great work, and I wish you a great future in the writing field.


~Kate

Well written poems. I sympathise with the animals. Good work. I have voted. Best of luck with these three.

some very moving and well thought out work here, good luck and thank you for your comment.

Fact check:  Cows are milked for three years and then bred (giving the cow about a year of reprieve).  That be as it may, you express well, your concerns. 

I've voted.  Good luck, my friend.

Yourtwords put toegether some good imagery and build some concerning thoughts,slightly disturbing but i think it just goes along with your very important subject matter. very suiting A+ +  my soon to be neighbor for in a few weeks i will be moving to Melbourne from the states. Any places i should know about?

Most definately publish, everyone should have a chance to read these. I do so agree with the sentiment in these poems. I am a vegetarian. How people can face eating dead animals is beyond me. Anyway well done for putting the point across so well.

unique set of poems
Thanks for voting for my poems.

I had some roommates back in the late '80s who were hunt saboteurs and VERY active animal rights activists, so I can't say your passion leaves me unmoved.  I would say, however, that the more passionately you feel about something, the more carefully you must craft it in art in order to make it succeed.  Yours is substantially ahead of most of what I've seen written in this cause, but it still tends to preach:  and I know you mean to, of course, but I think you could do it more successfully than you've achieved as yet. 

Traditional folk music offers what I think is the key.  Where modern folk music tells us (for example) "War Is Bad", traditional songs tell us one person's story in personal terms that leave us CONCLUDING FOR OURSELVES that war is terrible.  (E.g. the original Irish lyrics for "Johnny Comes Marching Home" - 'oh where are the legs on which you run/When first you went to carry a gun/I think your dancing days are done/Johnny, I hardly knew ye'.) I think this is the reason that your first offering is the most effective, because it comes closest to that approach.  Some of it goes back to the storyteller's dictum, "Show us, don't tell us." 

You've got a lyrical sense that I think can make language a potent tool in your cause:  but as it stands, you are mostly going to appeal to people who already agree with you.  I'd like to see you develop the subtle - some would say underhanded - approach that would draw tears from those who hadn't considered the question as yet.  And in fact, I think you can develop the skills to do that.  But it will probably require you to step back from your emotions and consider how to present your case to a world that (for the most part) hasn't considered the whole moral issue as yet, and is going to have to have its eyes opened through a more subtle approach.  To apply the trad-folk model, give us one chicken's story, say:  starting with the optimism of hatching and moving through the Gulag of its restricted life.

Have you read Kingsolver's _Animal, Vegetable, Miracle_?  She introduces the realities with a gentle touch and a delightful wit that will probably speak to millions.  And I could see you doing the same, in your own style. 
Keep at it.

The first poem was very powerful and moving, and if you'd kept within that style and standard, you'd definitely have had a yes vote. There is a lot of knowledge, intelligence and feeling within these poems and for that I would like to see them published, but the second two just don't come across as possessing the same quality as the first. It feels more like a lecture than a poem.

If you could refine the second two and make them as poetically compelling, I would definitely vote for you. As they are now, you draw the reader in with the first, but unless they're of the same mind, there's a chance you could lose them with what comes across as 'preaching'.

As I said, the first poem was very emotive and powerful and I would love to see published. There is a lot of potential here, both for your writing and your message. Good luck with your future work.

These are heartbreaking...your quest to educate and enlighten is fulfilled...these are filled with emotion, and make us think good job.

Your poetry brings about the worst parts of animal cruelty.  Here on most dairy farms the newborns are raised to add to the heard.  Not all mind you.  But  many.  Your poetry has a great animal rights  activistism.  Have you thought about submitting them to some of the groups that are against animal cruelty and they publish articles and such?  I voted yes and good luck.

Niyahlove
http://www.webook.com/project/Pain-of-another

Very sad you got my vote

You have my support whole-heartedly and my vote of course.  Each poem was insightful and so moving.

Best of luck to you- I wish everyone could read these poems.  I think it would change the outlook of many!

One of my poems I think you would enjoy- if you get time to read it is "Where the Hell is My Keeper," I'll leave the link.
http://www.webook.com/shortstory.aspx?p=6f7b6b2399ad4233a761d178c758ae79&sit=e412bbd43632460bb981add8753fe3f0

Great job loved Cows Give us Milk

Amazing poems. Wonderfully flowing, awakening poems. Who would of thought something as innocent as milk could be butchered so cruelly from its unwanting giver? The first one is my favourite, a beautiful read. Best luck to you!

Oh so sad and excellently written

Moving. Sad. Forcing me to think twice about the food we consume. Good job.
http://www.webook.com/project/Blackened-Rose

this does make me want to cry, and since i don't like to drink milk i feel all that much better that i don't. thank you. this should go in, especially cows give us milk

Such Talent, your writings are VERY moving...PUBLISH!

Great poetry. Quite unique. Very powerful and heartbreaking.
You have my vote....
And thank you for your vote also.
Good luck.
x

Cows Give Us Milk is a definite favorite of mine.  Keep up the good work, you have my vote.

http://www.webook.com/project/Remission-of-a-Younger-Us

I love animals as well and the thought of them going to slaughter makes me cringe.  I found your poetry touching, the subject matter intense and very well written.

nicely written commentaries on a subject so often ignored, I always thought we were here to help and nurish animals not to breed them for slaughter in the most inhumane ways, you tackled a tough subject that most people never even realize and made your points well, good job, I voted YES

Powerful poems on an important subject.  I liked your first the best -- I hate the way animals are raised, transported, and slaughtered in this country.  Their eyes speak to me too, even when I see them only for an instant.

I'm a vegetarian for these and other reasons.  Wish more would join our ranks. 

Write On!

You have very strong views that are clearly expressed in your work!

     Please....http://www.webook.com/project/Three-of-my-best-Poems

i love your imagery..its very strong and fitting descriptions... you have my vote

Strong believer I vote publish

mpolis hit the nail on the head.

i vote publish.

I'm very impressed by your tight meter and rhyming scheme. Excellent poems, all.

wow, yes I am a vegetarian and this is part of the reason for that.
However, I think darion has a point, not all farms are cruel environments, although I guess you are targeting the biggest companies who do seem to think anyhing is permitted to them. So I agree with  your sentiment and know that these obscene things do happen in (not all) but many places and awareness should be raised about that, so you have my vote.
Sunyata

These are written nicely but I don't agree with anything you said. As for the treatment of these animals I have family that raises for these purposes and have lived with them before. The animals were generally treated better then us kids.

wow! this is enough to make me want to go vegetarian for a day. lol. very good poetry. i like the message you are conveying here. my vote is in. i enjoyed this project.

~half pint

Great idea for poems - I agree with previous feedback you should help use them for campaigns.  Poems would reach people in a way that a hundred articles wouldn't.

I am a veggie myself for those reasons.  Good luck to you to

"How Would You Like It?" is my favorite, although I would change the title... Personally I like a descriptive poem like this to have a descriptive title.  The meter and rhyme are spot on and your description really make your point well.

We usually hear, "got milk?"  PETA & the ASPCA should hire you as a spokesperson.  (That's a compliment by the way.)  Your poems & the words contained in them shows such compassion for the animal kingdom.  I'm glad I got to read them & vote for you.  OH, and thanx for your vote!  ~Steve

http://www.webook.com/project/Three-for-the-vote
Have a look at mine if you will

You ahve a strong message and a big heart keep up the message

Content:
I love amnimals great thought your content is just great good luck the voice

Voted, best of luck.


If you've time...http://www.webook.com/project/My-Best-Three-Poems-WEBook-2009

;-) X

Interesting subject matter, well delivered.

We are doing more in the UK to improve animal welfare and to educate the public on where our food comes from, and I believe we need to do much much more.

Nice, brave works, and I would like to wish you the very best of luck for the vote!!

great you got my vote

I appreciate your vote for my poetry and I was more than happy to vote for yours. I have such a passion for animals and I am glad that someone is speaking out against animal cruelty. Thanks and good luck!

One negative statement against many many positive ones. Just remember there is always a naysayer to your work, your belief and your cause. No matter what the cause is.

I really liked your message, your delivery, everything. Yes vote from me.

Hmmm.Learnt alot there.
Thanks for the vote.
Heres mine.

Well I learned something here, didn't know that about the cows and chickens and piglets. Good writing, I voted. and thank you for your vote on my lil poems. Hope your publishing dreams come true.

General:
vote submitted....

Content:
I love animals...
hate animal cruelty...

You have written passionately about a cause that is urgent to you.  Your poems make that clear.  Best of luck to you!

General:
Fantastic cause you have chosen, and well written as they are certainly emotive. 

Imagery:
Is really clear and vivid, just what is needed!

Publish!

If you have the time, please take a look:
http://www.webook.com/project/Jens-three-best-poems-on-mystical-freedom

Thank you.

I agree with your cause and your poetry will hopefully make people think. Publish. If you'd like to look at mine, search "Destini's Trifecta". Good luck!

Three emotive poems very well written - a yes vote.

these are so sad... but well worth the cause.
YES!!!


to read mine:

http://www.webook.com/project/Voodoo-Hearts-My-3-Poems-for-entry-Webook-2009poetryVOTE

thank you!

This is a subject most shy away from , but the way you put it is well worth a read !
Good Luck.


http://www.webook.com/project/Three-for-the-competition

If you get the time.

your topic alone is worth the vote....but it is well said too.  thumbs up from me!

I like it so I voted yes.

http://www.webook.com/project/Animal-Cruelty

I agree with what he said man. That guy there in the black and white. 

Publish this man, and don't listen to shitheads who know shit.

I preach a similar message (about pet store animals) whenever I can, and of course the internet, with its unlimited viewing audience is a great way to do that. I am looking into ways as how I might ‘preach to the choir’ myself, and if that’s what I am doing then … fucking good!

 Who cares if it’s appropriate or not?

Who cares if the word fucking ‘regal’ or not may be applied to a cow - but to bring that argument up here, to me, is a ridiculously ignorant and worthless waste of fucking time … as some here undoubtedly would argue that this is not the right platform for these submissions in the first place (and of course they are wrong) we’re not debating whether a cow is regal or not, or even, I think it is obvious, poetry with these submission, and we are not talking vegetarianism - which I think sometimes is highly pretentious in itself for many, many people, certainly from my observations of so called ‘socially conscious’ people, whom, I wonder of, if they drink milk, or anything made with milk or even eat eggs in any form, with that conscious?   Many, I have found, with not the guts to go the full hog,  you’ll  pardon the pun, into veganism … if indeed that is a word …and if it isn’t it should be … spout on about being a vegetarian and social consciousness to simply fit in; as sheep, to the sub-culture they might find themselves in temporarily.  At least sheep have a fucking excuse for their predictability. 

These poems here are about the inhumane treatment of all animals - edible or not - get over your self if you can’t see that. 

However I agree that if you want these to be poems, then more artistic application and drama could make a much bigger more horrific statement.  But I say put this on the fucking cover of the fucking poetry book anyway.   PUBLISH.
http://www.webook.com/project/Quirked

wow, good luck!  i love the topic of animal cruelty because it's unique and alerting. 

http://www.webook.com/project/Three-Poems-From-My-Freshman-Year-In-High-School

You have my vote!

http://www.webook.com/project/Chelseas-Poems

I hate animal cruelty, good luck, voted:-)

Have read all your poems. All the animals - how I love them. I vote of you.!

Animals are helpless; some born, destined to be love as home pets, some will live to used later - they just can't save themselves. They are used by people, yet their lives cannot be spared. (sigh!)

I'm a vegetarian for reasons pertaining to animal rights and social consciousness, and I think this is pretentious, preachy, and unlikely to reach an audience outside of a PETA rally. The word "regal" used to describe a cow (twice) is giant leap that most non-animal-rights enthusiasts will simply not make without your help, and you haven't painted the cow as regal, you've just said she IS regal, which is not the same thing.

I love what you are trying to do here; it just isn't working for me, but only because I'm not willing to let you preach to the choir. If you want to affect social change with your words, they need to be more potent and more populist than these.

There's something that needs to be changed.

voted