We at SELF PSYCHOLOGY NEWS are attempting to broaden this publication from its previous conception as a newsy newsletter into what we hope will become an interesting small magazine. As part of this conceptualization we decided to introduce a literary element into our pages. To stimulate interest among our community's authors we announced a literary competition for poems and short stories at the 2002 annual conference. The prize was to be publication of the winning pieces in the limited space of the printed newsletter. While we had no short story submissions, several poets did announce themselves and submitted their work.

The editorial staff faced the daunting challenge of selecting the winning pieces until SELF PSYCHOLOGY NEWS changed from its printed version to its current online format. Publishing on the web removed our space limitation. It saved us from the nearly impossible task of selecting a single winner and enabled us to print all the submissions. As you will see when you read these poems, the self psychology community is rich in bards - each of whom is a winner.