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February 20, 2008
Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Poetry Contest
The Walt Whitman Birthplace Association is Proud to Present the Twenty-Second Annual Poetry Contest
The theme is The Crossing, based on Whitman's poem, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, included in Leaves of Grass. The first stanza is shown below:
Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
Clouds of the west!--sun there half an hour high--I see you also face to face.
Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious they are to me!
On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose;
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.
Complete contest rules can be found at: http://www.waltwhitman.org/Poetrycontest.asp. Highlights are listed below:
Contest: Write a Poem About a Crossing or Crossings
There are many kinds of crossings: crossings by boat, bus, jet, car, bike, UFO, skateboard, or just crossing the street by foot. Also a crossing could be developmental (small to tall, child to teenager), or emotional (falling in love, losing a loved one, gaining a sibling), or intellectual (crossing to a new understanding or realization—what you knew then, what you know now and how you got there). And, of course, birth and death, are the crossings in and out of this life.
Entries must be postmarked by March 7, 2008 and winners will be notified by mid-May. Mail entries to:
Poetry Contest
Attn: Carolyn Diglio, Coordinator of Visitor Services
Walt Whitman Birthplace Assocation
246 Old Walt Whitman Road
Huntington Stations, NY 11746-4148
Entry categories are Individual Poems or Class Anthologies for grades 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12.
Good luck to the poets out there. Let me know if you enter.
Ed Goldberg
Teen Services Librarian
Posted by egoldberg at February 20, 2008 4:42 PM