Thursday, March 6, 2014

Poetry Submission

Recently, I joined my local writer's group: The Charlotte Writers' Club. Being part of a group such as this one allows a writer to meet other like-minded people, expand their networking, utilize the club for various workshops, and contest entries. The most recent contest that was open is the Deane Ritch Lomax Poetry Prize. The rules are fairly simple. You write a poem, pay the entry fee and submit. Sounds easy enough, right? There is only one small catch......you have to write poetry.

Even though I have not shared with many people over my life, I do have a natural affinity to poetry. The artistic form of using complex words to shape a vision without directly stating it has always been fascinating to me. The largest challenge for me is choosing which style I want to write in and the fact that the poem cannot be published. That means you will not get a preview of the poem, sorry.

What I can tell you is that I have chosen to write a Sestina. A Sestina is a unique poem style that centers around six words. There are Six Stanza's (paragraphs), each containing six lines. Each line ends in one of the six words in a certain order. This order is pre-defined. Then the poem is closed with an Envoi, which is three lines at the end, consisting of all six words, two for each line.

Sound complicated? It is. But once you go through the process of writing a couple of them it gets much easier.

The submission deadline is March 18th. I have already submitted my poem into the mix, so we will see what happens. The winners will be named in a couple months. There will be a First Place Prize of $100, a Second Place Prize of $50, a Third Place Prize of $25 and three Honorable Mentions. The winners will have to read their poem in front of an audience at an awards presentation during the monthly meeting.

Wish me luck!

Click HERE if you would like to know more about Sestina Poems.

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