no.stupid.answers

One of our contributors, Judy Florian, provides an interesting look inside this crazy ride called Answers.com in our featured poem this week. Answers.com has facts about the Battle of Waterloo and it also has the latest reality show gossip. But it all falls into place and we learn from each other while building the world’s leading Q&A site.

We Learn from YOU, by Judy Florian, July 8, 2010

Need quick answers to your problems?
Volunteers will reply to each of them.
From students’ to professionals’ wisdom
We give true answers to all who come.

Answers.com is the place to turn!
For any subject you wish to learn.
Type a question, see what’s there!
Celebrity to chemistry to polar bear.

Are you curious about Lindsay Lohan?
Database design? or the newest band?
Tracing of blood through your heart?
Give us a topic from which to start!

Ask the most trivial, the most obscure.
Ask about what makes you feel unsure.
We’ll do our best to explain it well,
Define, describe, in detail we’ll tell.

Studying the history of Women’s Lib?
Don’t understand parents? problem sibs?
Concerned about how your boyfriend acts?
Want to understand, know, get the facts?

Want help for your relationship stress?
How she could cheat, but not confess?
Are you figuring out personality types?
Want to understand what’s all the hype?

Test questions? Well, that’s not our goal.
Supplies of test answers creates a hole
In learning all that you will need to know.
But by explanation, Answers we’ll show.

Our directions will give you the source.
Show you ways to pass that school course!
And in the process, volunteers learn too.
From Bieber, to NASA, we learn from YOU!

It’s easy to register and to join the site,
Become a contributor, post Answers right.
Newbie to experienced Answers.com pro,
In your contributions, let knowledge show!

Earn Trust Points with answers written well.
Compassion, respect, and your grammar tells
That you’re one who will share all you know
For recent questions, or ones from long ago.

Then work your way up, if that’s what you want.
Consistency makes advancement an easy jaunt!
Come quick to www.answers.com to get it right.
Answers.com, The World’s Leading Q&A Site.

Anku m is another one of our Answers.com contributors with a penchant for poetry. She enjoys studying science in school (biology in particular). But when school’s out she focuses her energies on more creative pursuits, including digital photography, painting and the written word. This poem of hers is titled “I know what I am.”

I know what I am, by Anku m

Certain things to know
Obstination they show
Still I don’t know
Why they slow…

If I go round ‘n’ round
Earth I may see
Is not what I think
Oh! I remember
There are many things
Out of my know-how

I wondered life
Yes, I know it strides
Learnin’ from episodes
Trials and ordeals
From birth to present time
And to death

Certain things to know
Obstination they show
Still I don’t know
Why they slow…

Not immortal
Or just divine
In this present time
I know
As its very far
A way from my go
Better there are
Many things to know

Life’s so illustrative
But why am I not illustrious
Mind inquisitive
Mind anxious
Nothing I know

Certain things to know
Obstination they show
Still I don’t know
Why they slow…

One cannot know everything
But I know what I am

Have you met the Big Cat?  (No, I’m not talking about the famous baseball slugger)   Bigcatone is an Answers.com supervisor who also happens to have been a zoologist in a former life.  You’ll typically find him on the prowl in the Wild Cats category but he can do the History thing too. Rumor has it he can even belt out a song or two on the side!

This man of many talents is now showcasing his writing talents for us.  This week’s feature in the Poetry Cafe is about love and what it means to the Big Cat.

Untitled, by Bigcatone

To hold you close at dawn’s first light

to kiss those lips at lost midnight

To see the ruins of the dying day

And suppress the love we gave away

To realize the true love story

and live our lives

In true love glory

To breathe the air that swirls about

to whisper when we need to shout

To feel the life we made anew

To see the grass in morning dew

To walk along the beach at dawn

And know you are the only one

To watch the sunrise over the gate

To hear the night as it abates

Feeling love and evermore

A walk along the golden shore

To let you know the way I feel

To let hearts once broken heal

and hold the hand I treasure most

As love grows ‘long the golden coast

We’re continuing our tradition of highlighting poets in the Answers.com community this week.  Sadie Huemer, a.k.a. “Nina567,” is one of our newest contributors.  She also happens to be a budding poet.  She stepped forward with this poem about the rain which has a profound effect on her.

[If you would like your original poetry profiled on this blog, please e-mail it to poetry @ wikianswers.com (no spaces) and include your Answers.com username!]

Rain, by Sadie Huemer

Rain patters on the pale glass that is left in my life,
it drains through first my brain then slowly, squeezes through my heart,
it touches me like a red blanket wrapped around in a world full of grasp,
It touches me like a cat in a lake not moving or speaking,
and even though I can feel it, it really isn’t there.
The End

Over 10 million people have shared their knowledge on Answers.com.  There’s something magical about typing your thoughts on your keyboard and knowing that they will become part of a permanent information resource that is consulted by millions every day and can benefit generations to come.  As contributors we know we are making a difference when we receive messages of thanks from readers on our message boards.   But one of the top WikiGuides, “Worldwide520,” put things in perspective with a poem about the following encounter he had with a reader of his answer.

Why we Wiki, by Worldwide520

 

A girl just lost her sister,

She had taken her own life.

I don’t know quite how,

I have no idea why,

But this random event

Just changed my life.

One normal day

I was browsing the site

Our amazing Answers.com,

The greatest place on the Web.

I was perusing the boards

And making some merges,

Reorganizing questions

And adding some answers,

Then a few key words did catch my eye

Of a particular question

That I happened to find.

I first thought it ought to be trashed,

But with requisite care

I was not so rash.

Essentially, the question asked:

My sister just leapt from a window high,

How did it end, her precious life?

Using my knowledge of anatomy,

I gave a straight answer,

Though it was hard for me.

For kin of my own

Have encountered death

So I sympathized with this child,

Though we had not met.

The question was touching,

In a unique way,

For she came to us,

To soothe her pain.

When I said the end

Had likely come quick

I received a message

That I did not expect.

The girl was relieved

That her sister

Had not known suffering in the end,

And I was touched,

For look at what I did.

A solemn answer was refuge

To a grieving young girl

Who’d just lost her sibling,

Her closest friend in the world.

And people will often ask

Why we’re so dedicated to our site,

They’ll ask,

What’s the value?

Why do you waste your time?

It may seem insignificant,

Like a trivial little story,

But times like those

Remind me why I contribute.

We believe in knowledge,

And its availability to all;

We love cooperation,

Diversity makes us whole;

This is why I Wiki,

This is who we are.

[If you would like your original poetry profiled on this blog, please e-mail it to poetry @ wikianswers.com (no spaces) and include your Answers.com username!]

You may know An8thg as the fearless leader of our Vandal Patrol program.  Her dedicated squad removes many thousands of inappropriate answers each week!

The poem below is based on an actual experience she had while wandering the downtown streets of her hometown working on a poetry/photography project.  She had stumbled upon an older home with fantastic architecture that she wanted to photograph for the project.  As she approached the home to take the shot, an entire group of homeless men came crawling out from underneath the house and running past her.   The rest of the story, as it happened, is below.

[If you would like your original poetry profiled on this blog, please e-mail it to poetry @ wikianswers.com (no spaces) and include your WikiAnswers username!]

Dignity Under the Front Porch of Despair, by An8thg

They feared her
for a split second
her paled skin
clean and sweet

They feared her
gathering what little they had
and running
but she continued on
without a word
just a smile

‘Do you mind if we watch TV here?’ he asked
gathering his dignity
and oversized clothes
both from round his feet

‘I don’t live there.’
she answered
‘I don’t care.’

He stood for a moment
watching her
and she him
two worlds
separated
by just one paycheck
and a bottle of soap

He curled up
back under the porch
scurrying
like roaches to darkness
and she followed him
and she feared him
his dark skin
pasty from long, cold nights
gums bleeding
smile vacant

‘May I take your picture?’ she asked
treading
ever so lightly

‘No ma’am, I’m too dirty.’

You may have happened across Sophie200‘s last contribution to the Poetry Cafe, Wait for me. It was so great we’re welcoming back Sophie for an encore.

When it comes to answering on Answers.com you’ll often find her in the Hamsters section. Sophie wishes she had an unusual hobby like trainspotting or skydiving but, alas, she does not. But don’t think that makes her easy to understand. She’s complicated to decode, just like the essence of her poems. One of her favorites is published below.

[If you would like your original poetry profiled on this blog, please e-mail it to poetry @ wikianswers.com (no spaces) and include your WikiAnswers username!]

My Voice, by Sophie200

Flood in the light to block out the dark,
break down the walls that guard the heart.

Reveal the secrets to cover the lies,
identity drowning in the tears of my eyes.

Innocence gone at the flick of a switch,
To love or to hate – I can’t decide which.

Imagination glows fiery and alight,
Passion lives in me, gone is the night.

You make me laugh, you make me smile,
time spent with you, seems so worthwhile.

True love kicks the heart and tears at the soul,
Finally motivation, I’m left with a goal.

To live or to die is not a hard choice,
when happiness speaks out love is my only voice.