Extra Credit for Entering this Contest--If you're interested, I'll help you, let me know.

EPOC Poetry Contest – 2011 ComFest
GUIDE LINES
Email submission with ComFest in the subject line to: hanseatin@columbus.rr.com
Submit up to 3 poems with no more than 40 lines each by: June 15, 2011
Address any and/or all of the following topics: Mountain Top Removal, Factory Farming,
Plastic Bags, Nuclear Power, Fracking, EWaste
Last Name – First Name
Child or Adult (18 years +)
E-mail
Title of Poem 1
Topic of Poem 1
Title of Poem 2
Topic of Poem 2
Title of Poem 3
Topic of Poem 3
PRIZES
Winners in both, the Children’s and the Adult Category receive 1st, 2nd or 3rd cash prizes ranging from $10 to $100 and/or ComFest T-Shirts/Memorabilia as well as a reading of their poems on one of the ComFest Stages.
Check in at the Solar Stage on 6/25 at 4:30pm if you would like to write a poem during our EcoPoetry Workshop with poets, facilitators and music.
Disclaimer:
The transcribers of these poems are not responsible for their accuracy in trying to decipher submissions that are handwritten .
Support the Environment with Your Voice!
WHAT IS ECO POETRY?
EcoPoetry conjures vivid details, rich history and intense nature imagery that channels the audience’s energy toward environmental activism. While staying true to their poetic intent, poets and audience explore the 3 Rs (reuse, recycle, reduce by weaving nature into language: connecting literary imagination to our landscape, natural history, and a sense of environmental urgency. Several formats lend themselves to EcoPoetry:
Call-and-Response Poems will reflect on sustainable farming practices, reversing watershed damage and minimizing air pollution through immersing rather than confronting the listener.
Personification Poems lead the listeners through role and group readings. Participants enjoy different poetic styles as a tool to address ecological issue thus encouraging them to engage in literary arts and environmental projects.
Traditional Poetry reveals the lyricist as relying solely on writing itself to promote change, i.e. the traditional strengths of poetry, its powers of observation, to teach others to be aware of the intimate connections between human beings and nature, to document the importance of nature, and most importantly, to call for the importance of human stewardship. Activist Poetics, both environmentalist and feminist in nature, enact a partnership ethic with nature, intended to alter, and better our communities.
The above and other forms of Interactive Poetry must pertain to Water, Soil, Air or Noise Pollution, Environmental Conservation or Preservation Issues. To express your concern for the degrading environment and awaken the audience, no other restrictions apply because poetry and the environment belong to everybody – or is that wishful thinking?
Discovering the limitations of environmental poetry as either promising hope or forecasting doom, brings about the understanding that they are similar in that they consider human beings as dominant over nature, with the power to either cure or destroy the planet. Poets may suggest a different approach such as a partnership with nature, whereby poetry could eventually lead to a change in individual ethics.
While listening to and/or engaging in creating poetry to protect the environment, we are reminded that the wild is still present and we must act to preserve rather than tame the still free and unmanaged. Recognizing this necessity, poetry can serve as a powerful means for environmental stewardship.

Another great long poem

Anne Sexton's Eighteen Days without You

A Trove of Phrases to Incorporate into your Long Poem

Spider Daisy*Hot Red Pepper*Fall Garden Radichio*Annual Pink Begonia*Parade Confetti Fanfair*Quiet Providence Peach*Atlantic Peach Pink*Early Southern Dawn*Hardy Meadow Cranesbill*Petite Frozen Violet*Picturesque Gray Ocean*Meadow Harebell*Extreme Purple Luxury*Navy Night Horizon* Incredible Navy*Suspicious Finch*Summertime Shasta Daisy*Glass Slipper*Water-Colored Eye*Homemade Custard*Lyrical Lemon Grass*Mellow Mustard Gold*Dijon Dance-Slipper*Party Gown*Kingdom's Brazen Gold*Snakeskin Sandal*Metal Petal Gloss*Forgotten Antique Yellow*Awakened Azalea*Swan Lake Mist*Musical Dress Shoes*Pogo Stick*Pixie Stick*African Safari*Canopy Bedspread*Deepest Tangerine Grove*Orange Mondragon*Rhodendron*Ruby Radish Promise Ring*Outdoor Wedding*Brass Band*Fresh Topic Orange*Sugared Melon Crush*Soft Splendid Peach*Garden Light Peach*Mellow Modest Peach*Cloud Formation*Frozen Praline*Essence of Blue*Baby Nubuck*Bluebell Garden*Natural Sundance*Lost at Sea*Blue Raspberry Icee*Fall Harvest Spice*Coriander Weather*Collander*Sorrel*Candied Sweet Potato*Cherished Blue Diamond*Rhinestone Eternity Ring*Crushed Sapphire*Vintage Copper Classic*Limitless Cosmos Blue*Eastern Kimberly Cedar*Deep Heliotrope*Silk Parachute*Trellis Dark Ivy*Courtyard Ground Cover*Emerald Clover*Pine Forest Shade*Satin Hammock*Ravine Rock Moss*Laurel Delancy Green*Lana Turner's Pout*Reflecting Windowpane*MacKenzie Green Ash*See-through Sycamore*Young Budding Green*Western Wild Asparagus*Spring Green Twig*New Palmetto Leaf*Sunset Boulevard*Coney Island Pie-Moon*Greenhouse Basil*Ravenna Olive Grove*Amazing Amazon*Wild Violet Pansy*Nepal Eggplant*Old Thimbleberry Blossom*Thumbelina Bloom*Soft Visibly Violet*Bouquet of Violence*Bruised Knees*Faded Pale Amethyst*Prussian Pasque Flower*Sundrenched White Plum*Light China Aster*Orchid Italina Aster*Dinosaur Kale*Pink & Pretty Petunia*Tunafish Sunrise*Wild Berry Purple*Salmon Spider Lily*Whitest White*Holiday Cozumel Aqua*Secret Locket*Frozen Ice Crystal*Love Bite*Bitter Boy*Garden Urn*Trusted True Blue*Bitter Sour Apple*Brittle Bones*Country Fog*Flaming Red Hot*Ebony Stone Black*Gray Granite*Bermuda Blue*Japanese Windflower*Carnival Harlequin*Holiday Cozumel Aqua*Prickly Pear Green*Bermuda Blue*Deep Heliotrope*Field Day*Seafaring Teal*Charm Bracelet*

finished a very rough first draft of the sestina

one hundred and fifty total lines and in real need of revision. But I did keep my word. Just wanted you all to know. I can't wait to read yours!

Villanelle Engine

The Long Poem Readings

Poem to Keep What I Love by Taije Silverman

Elegy for the Saint of Letting Small Fish Go by Eliot Khalil Wilson

Formal Poetry Reading Homework:

Villanelle form
Examples: Read One Art by Elizabeth Bishop and Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas (both have links on the left of the villanelle description on the above link.)


Sestina

Read all of the examples plus Elizabeth Bishop's Sestina

Sonnet

Read about the varieties of sonnets and at least six examples.