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Campus Life

Consider the Poem

Surely, there are more creative writers and accomplished poets on NC State’s campus than the humble prosaics here at the Bulletin.

We only do limericks, haiku and occasional “Roses are red” verses. Like:

There once was a T.A. in Broughton
Who wrote poetry when she oughtn’t
She won a contest
By writing the best
And considered the gains ill-gotten.

So put on your best Keats cleats and enter the NC State poetry contest, one of the largest such competitions in the South. Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program, the statewide contest offers a $500 prize to the winner and a $100 prize to the best undergraduate entry.

It’s open to all NC State undergraduates and all North Carolina residents. Previously published authors and faculty, however, are not eligible. Besides, they would just expect to be ode something. Here are all the rules and such.

Sure, you can try a 5-7-5 poem, but it will probably end up like this:

I like rough haiku:
G
ritty, dirty, from the streets;
H
aiku you can chew.

So stick to the good stuff. But nothing about urns, please, Grecian or otherwise.

The deadline is fast approaching: Wednesday, Feb. 25. Contestants can submit up to three poems. All entries are free.

The guest judge for this year’s contest is Gibbons Ruark, who will present the awards and read from his own work at 7:30 p.m. on March 25 in the Caldwell Hall lounge. The award-winning poet has published eight collections, received three NEA Poetry Fellowships and was included in the anthology 2009 Best American Poetry.

And he never wrote anything as awful as this:

He wrote in Harrelson’s perimeter,
And thought he was an excellent submitter.
The nametag he wore
Suggested a bore.
It read: “I Am Bic Penn-Tammeter.”