I was tiptoing back through the archives and came across this one, which brought back some nice memories. We were all aghast to discover uponlog-in that day that Open forum #1 was closed and were were now at Forum #2! Many of us didn't even know that there would be anything other than only one forum.Today, and over forty forums and eight years later,here we are. Hats off to you all. Here's the link to the original if you want to read some fun replies...
/main/forumdisplay.cgi?action=displayarchive&number=18&topic=000031


They say that Open 1 is gone.
How foolish can they be?
For every word on every page
Is here in front of me.

Although the pages are not there
For me to really see
Their words will live forevermore
Within my memory.

Look! Right here! Page eleven
That's where my entrance began
A rescue from obscurity
By the ever-seeking Nan.

Responses that were given me
Gave me a sense of pride.
They opened up their friendly door
And welcomed me inside.

Page 32...the poems we wrote
For Independence Day,
Displaying love of country
In a beautiful array.

Now here's a poem that made me laugh
And that one made me cry.
I tried to answer every one
With some sincere reply.

And look how we replied!
We shot our poems back and forth!
On fellowship we shared in here
I cannot place a worth.

Page 62 is special. It's
Our first Community Poem,
A valiant joint endeavor
By the folks who call this home.

Here's PoetWheel coming by
To see us his first time.
He cracked us up and teased us with
The way he wrote his rhyme.

You can trace a poet's progress
From his first time posted rhyme
And watch as he matured and grew
Up to the present time.

A poet's life could be displayed
For everyone to see.
Let's take, in point, the simple case
Of sea of OKC.

Now sea, he posted poems of love
And Lady sea did, too.
After a while, our buddy, sea
Just disappeared from view.

Then Lady sea came back and posted
sea's old poems, alone.
All in a row, she posted them
(With comments of her own).

The sea of OKC came back
And posted on his own
Some poems of loss and emptiness
And being on his own.

So she was here and he was here,
Then they fell out of touch.
The she came back - then he came back..
This place is just too much!!!

We got to know our poets well.
We got to know them through
Emotions and experiences
That they put in full view.

We sympathized with failing health,
With lives that had gone wrong,
And, through our words of caring, we
Helped make each other strong.

Toerag showed up on #83
With Suthern right along.
Not far behind was Lorelei
Along with her Long John.

So many poets came and went.
So many poets stayed.
So many voices formed a wonderous
Passionate parade.

And now Book one is history.
It's faded now from view.
We find that we have moved along
To Open number two.

But memories it left behind
And friendships that it made
Will rest so deeply in our minds
That they will never fade.

So...out with the old - in with the new
Is the song we now must sing.
There was so much fun with number one
Let's see what two will bring!!!