Reflections from Crumbly Acres: poetry contests

Monday, 15 June 2009

What is poetry?

I do not know. I do know that I cannot answer the question, What is art?, either.

There are answers that enable us to understand how poetry is constructed.

This site, Thinking Poetry, seems to be a good one for information. I know that the young sometimes decry history, or the study of ancient art, or literature, yet I know we learn much from examining that which we love.

Study the masters and figure out how they created what they did. For example, visit the Margaret Reid Traditional Poetry site for past winners. That will help you find a bar for which you can aim!
We've been studying poetry since the beginning of time:

Fowler, W.C. (1855). The English Language in its Elements and Forms. Harper & Brothers.
Morgan, J. (1814). Elements of English grammar. Goodale & Burton.

However, keep writing, look for the Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse

They are accepting traditional verse poetry. They mean a poetry form that has been around for 50 years or more. They want poems that follow some kind of formal or informal pattern.
This pattern might involve rhyme, meter, length of line, repetition, or some other pattern, strict or loose.

Feet, meter, forms,
rhythm and rhyme
patterns popular
from the beginning of time.

Forms that qualify include free verse

T.S. Eliot

Ezra Pound

Walt Whitman

Stephen Spender)

"sprung" verse:

Gerard Manley Hopkins
narrative verse:

Alfred Noyes
satirical verse:

e.e. cummings: "my sweet old etcetera"

Dorothy Parker
nonsense verse:

Edward Lear
lyric verse:

Tennyson
romantic verse:

Wordsworth
religious verse:

James Russell Lowell
children's verse:

A.A. Milne
comic verse and parodies:

W.S. Gilbert

A.P. Herbert
also:
sonnets, haiku, ghazals, ballads, odes, villanelles, sestinas, songs, hymns

Check out this Glossary of Poetic Terms describes many forms. And traditional and exotic forms of poetry found on the winning writer's resource pages.

Odes: Praise poetry!

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

Writing Contests & Groups

It is heartwarming to celebrate poetry. It is even more encouraging to enter into contests. Be careful, as some on-line companies (I found one advertised on Facebook) are simply out to take your money.

These contests have similar guidelines, and very specific entry rules ($ per poem, single or double-spaced, name on back of paper, or font size). Follow them, as many groups receive hundreds, if not thousands, of entries. I have had two poems published in these contests. My entry did not, of course win, but they then print them in a chap book that you will receive in the mail. Mine collect dust on the shelf, but I know they are there!

It is best to workshop your poem before you get there. Read it aloud to yourself, read it to others. Skype with a friend if you have no writer's workshops in your area.

Submit it to various sites: PoetryDances,ning,com has separate folders for those who want mild, moderate or hard-nosed feedback. You can make your choice. This is a great spot to go, for you can read feedback from other submissions and figure out what does and does not work.

Write the poem, leave it, go back to it. Write a little every day. Make a space in your life to write. Set yourself up in a particular (quiet) spot. Listen to your iPod if quiet is not possible! Use the writing implement that makes you most comfortable; pen, pencil, computer.

Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, 1986 ; Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life, 1990 ) often writes about meeting a friend in a cafe, on a regular writing date alone or with a friend, to embed discipline into the writer's life. If you want to read about writing - check out her books, especially the earlier ones, as she is an experienced teacher of writing. Her teaching methods do translate into her written text rather well. I used it often when doing writing projects with my grade 8 students.

Canadian and International Poetry Contests