Tag Archives: poem

Poetry Contest Deadline Extended

05 Friday May 2017

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Hello Poets! The Poet’s Billow is extending the deadline for the Pangaea Prize to June 1st.

The Pangaea Prize is awarded for the best series of poems ranging between two and up to seven poems in a group. Judging will be based on poems as individual entities as well as their cohesiveness – that can be in terms of common themes, images, narrative or however else you would like to group your poems. All poems must be previously unpublished.  There are no restrictions to length or style.

The winning poet receives $100 and will be featured in an interview on The Poet’s Billow web site. The winning poems will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery. Finalists will also be considered for publication.

We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and The Best New Poets Anthology.

Visit our Literary Art Gallery to read our previous winners and finalists.

If you would like to stay updated on contests and publications in the future you can join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Poetry Contest Deadline: Revolution

28 Friday Apr 2017

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Only a few days left to submit to the Bermuda Triangle Prize. Send us your poems on the theme of Revolution. This year’s judge is Andrea England.

The Bermuda Triangle Prize is given to three poems on a theme from up to three different poets.

2017 Judge: Andrea England

Current Theme: Revolution (2017 Theme)

Revolution

  1. a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system.
    1. a dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works or is organized or in people’s ideas about it.
  2. an instance of revolving.
    1. the movement of an object in a circular or elliptical course around another or about an axis or center.

Each winning poem will receive $50, for a total cash prize of $150. The poems will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery. Up to five finalists will be considered for publication.

We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and The Best New Poets Anthology.

Guidelines:

As entries will be read blindly, your name and contact information should not appear on the poems themselves.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted as long as you send an email if a poem needs to be withdrawn. Multiple submissions are allowed with a paid submission fee for each set of three poems.

Each entry of three poems costs $10 and should be paid through paypal and the poems submitted by email to thepoetsbillow@gmail.com. Please format subject line (First, last name — Bermuda Triangle) (Follow this link and go to the bottom of the page for a paypal link)

Please submit all poems in one document and attach it to the email.

Submit Early – If you are worried about submitting earlier and paying for an entry you will have to withdraw, don’t worry! We will allow you to replace withdrawn poems until the end of the reading period.

If you need to withdraw a poem, please do so by replying to the confirmation email sent for your entry.

Submissions are open starting: November 15th, 2016

Submission deadline: April 30th, 2017 **Open**

Click here to go to contest page

Poetry Contest Deadline: April 30th

21 Friday Apr 2017

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The Poet’s Billow, an organization dedicated to increasing the exposure of poetry, is accepting submission for the Bermuda Triangle Prize – the deadline is April 30th.

The Bermuda Triangle Prize is given to three poems on a theme from up to three different poets.

Current Theme: Revolution 

  1. a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system.
  2. a dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works or is organized or in people’s ideas about it.
  3. an instance of revolving.
  4. the movement of an object in a circular or elliptical course around another or about an axis or center.

We are open to interpretations on the theme. It is up to you how literal or abstract you would like to play on the chosen theme.

Each winning poem will receive $50, for a total cash prize of $150. The poems will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery. We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and The Best New Poets Anthology.

Visit our website for guidelines on how to submit.

If you would like to stay updated on contests and publications in the future you can join us on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Day 20 Poetry Challenge

20 Thursday Apr 2017

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Happy Poetry Month! Here is another writing prompt from last year. It is to write an abecederian poem. Try it out and Enjoy.

thepoetsbillow's avatarthe poet's billow

It’s 4/20. And if pot was legal nationwide, this prompt would be very different…

Today, write an abecederian poem. It’s when the first letter of each line follows the order of the alphabet. So, the first line starts with A, the second with B, the third with C, etc. In the end you should have a 26-line poem.

Here’s one by Michelle Bonczek Evory (yours truly):

Lake Affected

April 11th and through my Michigan window: no surprise, really:

Blizzard. The small sidewalk trees sag under fluff and sky.

Cindy says she can’t take it, this weather. She misses

Dallas, the blue bells, has had enough of the lake’s snow globe

Extending its stay beyond this season’s home opener, yellow

Flowers and late night light for late nights

Grilling. Her hand opens back toward Texas like a beauty queen’s,

Her eyes bat their long lashes: Take me back old…

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Day 19 Poetry Challenge

19 Wednesday Apr 2017

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Here is a writing prompt from a year ago today: Happy Poetry Month!!!

thepoetsbillow's avatarthe poet's billow

“‘It doesn’t happen all at once…You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

I couldn’t help but share this excerpt that was shared with me today in my Yin Yoga class. For our class purposes, this was used as a meditation on acceptance. Here, on the Billow, for our purposes, I want to think about the Veleveteen Rabbit and his friend the horse who said this.

For today’s poem, write a…

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April 13th: Making Time, aka What are you looking at?

13 Thursday Apr 2017

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Poetry makes us slow down. And in that lengthening space, we are able to look closely–at a painting, a memory, a tree, a comma. Whatever it is, we look for a long time.

We look with all of our senses.

We linger.

I once performed a meditation in which you focus your attention on time and imagine a bubble, a dome, settling over your surroundings. The dome allows you to be present and protects you from the world on the other side of the bubble where time moves fast. You know that feeling of how something just won’t end? Usually it’s something we don’t want to be doing, right? A day that just won’t end. Well, this meditation switches this common experience so you can slow the feeling of time passing while you did things you really wanted to do. We all know that slow feeling. This allowed you to change it from dread to pleasure.

Funny. When I’m creating in the zone/in the flow, time ceases to exist. I don’t know if time’s expanded or contracted. There is no time. And when we enter that reality, we see differently.

This video reminded me of that experience. I hope it’s one you are all making time to savor.

Hidden Paintings 

Here are some more links on “fore-edge” technique:

Art on the Edge

Beauty on the Edge

Write on,

Michelle

April 3rd: Look Inside a Car Engine

03 Monday Apr 2017

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I woke up this morning to the sound of a table saw. My neighbors installing French doors in the back of their house, which my bedroom overlooks. The bedroom where I’d hoped to sip coffee and read the news in much more peaceful conditions. So, what brought me to this video was disgust. Plain hate for our noisy mechanical world. What I found instead: the universe in a cylinder. Holy cow, minute 3:

How Engines Work

How different the world looks up close, in slow motion…

Write on,

Michelle

April Poetry Month: Some Small Delight

03 Monday Apr 2017

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It is April once again. The month we’ve nationally dedicated to poetry and poetry awareness raises my own awareness each year, too. In years past I’ve met the April Poetry Challenge and wrote a poem every day. Last year on TPB I shared daily prompts to inspire writing in all of you. This year I find myself thinking about awareness and attention.

At Western Michigan University the semester is about a month away from over and papers and deadlines are begin to heap. The weather is warming and so is the garden and house renovations calling. I have a tooth distracting me with appointments and pain, a fridge that needs constant stocking and cleaning, cats with their litter boxes, dust settling on the shelves. There are bills stacked on the table, laundry in the basket, a car belt screeching, and what seems like endless phone calls and emails to return. Outside my own little world I manage, the new Administration works to dismantle healthcare, environmental protections, privacy rights–rights of all sorts for all sorts.

What’s that you say? Write a poem? Read poetry?

So, this poetry month I’m going to work to focus my attention–no matter how briefly–on places and things where poetry grows, and away–no matter how briefly–from things that seek to destroy it. “Poetry” in a loose sense. Not necessarily written or verbal. I’ll open my eyes each day and see what the universe delivers. An image, idea, fact, discovery. Something of beauty. Some small delight.

What the universe offers to me, I will in turn offer to you, dear reader, dear writers.

May this April fill you with delight.

Write on,

Michelle

Announcing 2016 Pangaea Prize Winners and Finalists

18 Saturday Mar 2017

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We are proud to be announcing the 2016 Pangaea Prize winners and finalists. We have two runners-up this year. We published both of their entries which means we have 3 collections being published for this contest. Go to the site and check out some great collections along with a selection of our finalists.

Congratulations to  Lauren Henley for winning the 2016 Pangaea Prize. She is the winner of the 2017 Perugia Press Award and the poems appearing on The Poet’s Billow are from her unpublished book called Whole Night Through. Check them out!

The Poet’s Billow is also now welcoming submissions to the Bermuda Triangle Prize and the 2017 Pangaea Prize. If you would like to stay updated on contests and publications in the future you can join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Winner
L.I. Henley

Runners-up 
Sarah Ann Winn
Catherine Cobb Morocco

 Finalists
JC Reilly
Peter Ludwin
Rob Carney
Amy Nawrocki
Therese L. Broderick
Cassondra Windwalker
Flower Conroy

 Semi-Finalists
John Bergholz
Maril Crabtree
Candice Iloh
David Bublitz
Jack Cooper
Kimberly Williams
Mary Kay Rummel
Bo Niles