The contest is for people ages 50+ and adults with a disability.
Participants may submit up to two poems of any length.
Poems may be written in either free verse or traditional forms.
A request if you wish to receive contest results by mail or email (winners will be notified).
Judges will look at such things as how the poet uses a variety of poetic devices, mastery of the poetic form being used, universality, significance of topic, and understandability of the poem.
Please join us at the Poetry Contest Reception.
and swaying, it dazzles and distracts and deceives, while scammers tell flattering tales to unwise tourists.
Shining in youth and cool confidence.
Her lips pursued, and her eyes.
I live by the house with the yellow flowers.
Is today Monday or Saturday?
I see people here and there.
The faces seem strange to me.
I may have eaten, I do not know.
With what? I do not know.
He pruned and watered them.
Was it yesterday or today?
A woman sits next to me.
Do I know her name?
They have not left me.
Why? I do not know, only where.
I love by the house with the yellow flowers.
as if it had a life of its own. My sister sobbed in a corner.
laid down clean rough sheets, tucked us back into our beds.
thrives greedily if given nourishment.
I thank you, I honor you, I love you.
his wife about the plagues.
dying cattle and festering boils?
before that impossible night? Yes.
But Pharaoh didn't consult his wife.
she had taught at our public high school for nearly forty years.
of Dickens and Longfellow and Shakespeare.
and write on its lid in neat letters: no surprises.
That was no battle, Daniel. It was a massacre.
Make no mistake, class. A massacre.
our history books whole, and were in awe of John Wayne’s West.
of Ada Nelson’s steady blue gaze.