New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes

New Classic Poems
Appendix A
• Submit early, submit often! (Up to 6 poems.)
HOW IT WORKS
NO, THANK YOU
Poetry that is perfectly acceptable within its own genre
may not be right for this particular contest. Before
submitting, please check:
• No free verse. No blank verse.
• No “experimental” styles. No irregular stanzas. We
want only traditional poems in this contest.
• No haiku or other specialized “non-Western”
formats.
• Blank lines are for stanza breaks only. Entries that
are entirely double spaced, or written entirely in
CAPITALS LETTERS will be rejected.
• No doggerel. No maudlin, sing-song, “greeting
card” verse.
• No limericks; nothing scatological or vulgar.
• Stanza structure required, as dictated by the poem’s
formal type. Naïve, long series of rhyming couplets
without stanza breaks will be rejected, except when
such a format looks specifically appropriate (which
is rare.)
• Sloppy, irregular scanning will usually be rejected.
This is a contest for formal, metrical poetry – not
song lyrics.
• No forced rhymes or disruptive, clumsy
enjambments. No silly neologisms unless you
aspire to be the next Lewis Carroll. We want a new
Tennyson, not a new William McGonagall!
• Unless you are imitating a particular dialect,
ordinary spelling and grammar errors will be
rejected. Either APS or English spelling is
acceptable.
• Weird work that is that is simply incomprehensible
(and we have received some!) will be rejected. You
have to communicate.
• No erotica.
• Nothing racist, sexist or libelous.
• No religion, politics, or chest-thumping,
nationalistic bombast.
• No more “9/11” poetry please.
• No lyrics, hymns or rap.
• True, Robert Service used the occasional cussword.
But use sparingly and tastefully. No
obscenity.
• Confessional, “I – you” love poems may flatter
your partner, but we are not interested in your
personal love life.
• Please incorporate your poem into the body of your
email. We cannot open attachments.
• Entries that fail to adhere to the guidelines will be
rejected.
• Kindly identify yourself. No anonymous
postings. Postings by poets only: for copyright
reasons, no submissions by third parties are
accepted. Include your postal address. (In case you
win, we need to know where to send your prize.)
Please be sure that your return E-mail address (the
one that people use when they hit “reply”) actually
works! We have received several entries that lack
valid E-mail addresses to respond to!
• Avoid reliance on “fancy” fonts for artistic effect.
We convert everything to Arial font prior to
posting.
• If it is deemed appropriate for this contest, your
entry will be posted on this website until we decide
to delete it after the contest closes. There is no
“hard copy” publication.
• No entry fee. It is our privilege to receive your
submissions.
• You keep full copyright to your own work.
• We will neither critique your poetry nor explain our
decisions. Rejection does not necessarily imply
criticism: an entry may simply be inappropriate for
this contest.
• We agree: a poetry “competition” is silly. So lets
compromise: I’ll pay $50 (Canadian dollars) for
each of three winning poems. (Three different
poets – only one prize for any one winner.)
• Kindly be patient. If accepted, your work will be
posted here eventually. But this website is only my
hobby: I need my day job to earn the money to pay
for your prizes!
HELPFUL HINTS
Your poem MUST have a strong and consistent
rhyming scheme to be accepted.
Good scanning separates winners from
losers. Read your poem aloud: if you stumble over
an awkward, irregular beat, it needs work. Many
poems that contain good ideas are spoiled by
sloppy scanning.
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