[OSList] Less is sometimes more. Poetry contest.

[Lisa Heft - via OSList]

Hello, lovely colleagues.

Last month, I wrote a long answer to Lucas’ request for feedback on inviting face-to-face conversations. I shared about hosting dialogue circles in prison, and about my colleague Ellen turning to the gentleman beside her on her public transit commute. (for anyone new to this list, this conversation can be found in the archives under the title "Opening Space on the Heels of Starbucks' Race Together Campaign”). And then Harrison wrote "Lisa – I do love it when you go on! J”  
And Harrison does love me. And I do love him. This we know to be true 
(as I say this, I send a virtual hug and raise a glass of beverage-of-choice to you, my friend. (When last we met, was it? it was whisky).

Which brings me to… the less-is-more, not the whisky…. which brings me to…

The Spring 2015 OSLIST Restricted Form Poetry Contest.

Yes ! How could it have led elsewhere, you ask?

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Our dear OSLIST has its own resident Poet Laureate, holding space for poetry in any way they so enjoy, for about six months. I once again had the honor of being this season’s Poet Laureate, and you can find my ‘found poetry’ in the archives. Inspired by the late great Laurel Doersam, I took excerpts from juicy conversations we had here on the list during my Poet Laureate season, pulled the sentences apart, sat with them, and floated them back together in ways that made meaning and showed patterns to me. And then I offered them back to you as gifts of your own collective voice, during my poetic reign. 

An OSLIST Poet Laureate does not have to be a poet. You are simply invited to have fun with words. For about six months, until you host the next contest (and some poets ask me to do it on their behalf, for which I am honored). ‘Restricted form’ means you are inviting people to work within a constraint, a certain shape, pattern or theme.
So here…we… go.

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For the Spring 2015 OSLIST Restricted Form Poetry Contest, I invite you to do the following. In honor of Harrison loving me when I go on and then saying, in quite a bit about doing less, in a few words. I invite you to write a haiku about how less is sometimes more, when Open Space is used.
A haiku is 3 lines. First line = 5 syllables, second line = 7 syllables, third line = 5 syllables. 

Send me your haiku *directly* - not on the list - to lisaheft at openingspace.net.
Three lines per poem.
About how less is sometimes more, when Open Space is used.

I will collect them, then show them back to you so collectively we can select one, therefore selecting our next Poet Laureate. 
Who will hold space for poetry on the OSLIST, for about the next 6 months.

Deadline: Midnight wherever you are in the world, Thursday May 7. 

Have fun, 

Lisa Heft
Spring 2006 and Spring 2015 Poet Laureate, OSLIST
also known as Access Queen
and a few other things