Good morning Australia, New Zealand and South-east Asia. Good afternoon to the Americas. Good evening Europe. Tony here. It’s my privilege to welcome you all to the first Meeting the Bar of 2014.

According to Roman mythology Janus was the god of gates and doors and, by extension, of beginnings and endings. Traditionally he was represented with a double-faced head, his faces looking in opposite directions. Originally one of the faces was bearded, perhaps to signify advanced age, while the other face was smooth, perhaps to signify youth. It is therefore entirely appropriate that the first month of the New Year – January – was named for him, and that this time of year is often one of both reflection and anticipation.

Beginning with anticipation, in the weeks and months ahead regulars at dVerse will notice that Form for All and Meeting the Bar have been merged under the Meeting the Bar banner. Fear not, form junkies. There will still be regular(ish) posts (re)introducing a variety of poetic forms, both old and new, to stretch your poetic muscles … smiles. Making this change leaves Sam, Gay, Anna, Victoria and myself free to bring a wider variety of prompts to this area of the Pub. I have a couple of ideas along this line myself, and I’m excited to see what the other members of the Meeting the bar team come up with.

The other side of the Janus coin is looking back. For our 2nd Anniversary week, I wrote a post which gathered all the FFA and MTB prompts into one place, and then invited you to write to one or more of these prompts that either you had missed, or that you especially enjoyed. A lot of you kindly remarked how useful it was to have all the prompts gathered in one post like that and some asked if we could do this more often. The answer to that is emphatically Yes!

Here’s a list of the Form for All and Meeting the Bar posts from the past 6 months:

Are You Listing?
Poetry as Semaphore (Twitter Poems)
Prosody – Line and Meter
The Poetry of Mathematical Series
Getting Tight in Here (55-Word Poems)
Give It To Me One More Time, (Do It Over Again)
The Three Riddles of the Sphinx
Jazz Poetry
Ballads
You Want Me To Do What?
The Poetry Hidden in Bookshelves
To Friends
The Beat Poets and Their Poetry
The Rondeau
Wild Beasts
List Poems and the Poetic Heart of Google
American Sentences
Modern Odes with a Taste of Chile
Fifty-Five Shades of Grey
Hearth, Home and Common Speech

That’s quite a list … smiles.

Today’s prompt is simple; choose one or more of these prompts and write a (new) response to it, then link your poem in the usual way. For any newcomers

Here’s how it works
• Write your poem and post it to your blog.
• Add a link to your poem via the ‘Mr Linky’ below.
• This opens a new screen where you’ll enter your information, and where you also choose links to read. Once you have pasted your poem’s blog URL and entered your name, click Submit. Don’t worry if you don’t see your name right away.
• If you write more than one poem, it’s OK to link them separately … smiles.
• Read and comment on other people’s work to let them know it’s being read.
• Share your work and that of your fellow poetsvia your favourite social media platforms.
• Above all – have fun!