A way with words | Sepia Mutiny

Drum roll please…and the 2004-2005 Poet of the Year award goes to…Indian poet Saleem Saim. As reported in Outlook Inida:

Noted English poet Saleem Saim has bagged the coveted “Poet of the year 2004-05” award, with a purse of 20,000 dollars, of the US based International Society of Poets. His poem, “Kept apart“, topped a list of some 5.1 million entries from across the globe and Saim has also been given a book publishing contract for his anthology, “Feeling”.

According to a letter from the Society, Saim’s induction as the best poet and award ceremony would be held in Orlando, Florida from February 25-27 this year.

Around 4,000 poets are expected to participate in the convention where Pulitzer Prize winner W D Snodgrass will present the grand prize.

The fact that he is a PhD in Chemistry and school teacher in Moradabad has not stopped Saim from honing his penchant for English literature and poetry.

See. Science geeks CAN have a way with words.

“I feel poetry as picturisation of one’s feelings thoughts, moods and sentiments,” he said adding it was the best medium to clean society of corruption and induce it towards love and humanity.

But wait. Is this all a scam??

Apparently Saleem wants to know as well. At least one person responds:

You are more likely to be declared a Saint by the Catholic Church than you are of collecting that $20,000.
Steven – Tucson, Arizona U.S.A.

Nobody said the life of a poet was easy.

6 thoughts on “A way with words”

This is so very common….infact there is a similar one for Photographers…. basically a rip-off!

probably a ploy by his wife.

Tell me if anyone else did ever receive the same prize.Thanks saleemhus@sancharnet.in Mobile: 9837240034

Have you read the, er, “winning” poem?

And perhaps take a look at this post on Kitabkhana, or this or this or this or this.

This page does the math. An extract

Turn-over estimate The anthology that I bought cost me $ 59.95. (excluding p+p). My estimate is … that there are around 1,500 poems in there. Since you won’t get published if you don’t buy the book, all those 1,500 poets have bought the anthology. That would mean 1,500 x $ 59,95 = $ 89,925 for the poems. There are 325 biographies of poets in the back (I DID count them by hand), for which the poet had to pay $ 25 extra. That’s 325 x $ 25 = $ 8,125. Together for this anthology that would be $ 89,925 + $ 8,125 = $ 98,050. I took the time to count the released anthologies that they have on the poetry.com website and in the year 2002, … they released a total of 52 anthologies. In 1998, which was probably a very profitable year for them the number of released anthologies rocketed up to 78. “So if we take the average of that, 65, and use that as the amount of released anthologies per year, you can calculate the following: 65 x $98,050 = $ 6,373,250 income per year only for those anthologies. That is over SIX MILLION DOLLARS! *dingdingdingding* “And then I didn’t even count all the other shit that they are offering. The awards, which cost like $ 175 – $ 250 each and the plaques on which you can have your poem printed and the audio recordings you can get from your poem and the offers for the symposia that you can visit as an outstanding poet. “And in this matter I’m only talking about the poetry part that they have. Imagine what their turn over is if you take into consideration that they also do ‘business’ in for example photography! My dear fellow poets, this is BOOOOOOOOMING business.”

Mr Saim has a better chance, perhaps, of winning the Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest.

[Disclosure: Once – i was so much younger then – i was a poetry.com “semi-finalist.”]

i’m one of those nominated for the 2005 amateur poet of the year award but can’t join the the convention because of some reasons: i received the letter of invitation late(feb 12, 2005) and also i can’t afford the fare to America from Nigeria. how can you be of help….can i still get any of the awards/benefits attached for being a nominee?How can you be of help to me?Please reply if convenient. Yours in writing Ayoola Nicholas Oldaehin

i also recived the award poet of the year 2005 it looks like a big racket the name of WD Snowgrass is included. beware of such scandalous societies parasuram

Raj on February 2, 2005 at 3:49 pm said:

This is so very common….infact there is a similar one for Photographers…. basically a rip-off!
Anji on February 4, 2005 at 1:29 pm said:

probably a ploy by his wife.
Saleem Saim on February 5, 2005 at 11:27 pm said:

Tell me if anyone else did ever receive the same prize.Thanks saleemhus@sancharnet.in Mobile: 9837240034
peter griffin on February 10, 2005 at 8:54 am said:

Have you read the, er, “winning” poem?

And perhaps take a look at this post on Kitabkhana, or this or this or this or this.

This page does the math. An extract

Turn-over estimate The anthology that I bought cost me $ 59.95. (excluding p+p). My estimate is … that there are around 1,500 poems in there. Since you won’t get published if you don’t buy the book, all those 1,500 poets have bought the anthology. That would mean 1,500 x $ 59,95 = $ 89,925 for the poems. There are 325 biographies of poets in the back (I DID count them by hand), for which the poet had to pay $ 25 extra. That’s 325 x $ 25 = $ 8,125. Together for this anthology that would be $ 89,925 + $ 8,125 = $ 98,050. I took the time to count the released anthologies that they have on the poetry.com website and in the year 2002, … they released a total of 52 anthologies. In 1998, which was probably a very profitable year for them the number of released anthologies rocketed up to 78. “So if we take the average of that, 65, and use that as the amount of released anthologies per year, you can calculate the following: 65 x $98,050 = $ 6,373,250 income per year only for those anthologies. That is over SIX MILLION DOLLARS! *dingdingdingding* “And then I didn’t even count all the other shit that they are offering. The awards, which cost like $ 175 – $ 250 each and the plaques on which you can have your poem printed and the audio recordings you can get from your poem and the offers for the symposia that you can visit as an outstanding poet. “And in this matter I’m only talking about the poetry part that they have. Imagine what their turn over is if you take into consideration that they also do ‘business’ in for example photography! My dear fellow poets, this is BOOOOOOOOMING business.”

Mr Saim has a better chance, perhaps, of winning the Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest.

[Disclosure: Once – i was so much younger then – i was a poetry.com “semi-finalist.”]
oladehin ayoola nicholas on February 12, 2005 at 7:47 am said:

i’m one of those nominated for the 2005 amateur poet of the year award but can’t join the the convention because of some reasons: i received the letter of invitation late(feb 12, 2005) and also i can’t afford the fare to America from Nigeria. how can you be of help….can i still get any of the awards/benefits attached for being a nominee?How can you be of help to me?Please reply if convenient. Yours in writing Ayoola Nicholas Oldaehin
PARASURAM on June 8, 2005 at 3:16 am said:

i also recived the award poet of the year 2005 it looks like a big racket the name of WD Snowgrass is included. beware of such scandalous societies parasuram