Klean-All Poet Announces Interlake 2017 Grain of Sand Poetry Month Contest
Deadline April 26 2 pm
April is poetry month in North America. The League of Canadian Poets has chosen “Time” as Canada’s theme celebrating our 150th year since confederation. Considering the Interlake beaches (they’re under the snow and ice somewhere), A Grain of Sand has been adopted for the name of this year’s contest. Let’s see if it sticks!
The great English poet William Blake wrote “To see the World in a Gain of Sand,/and Heaven in a Wild Flower,/Hold Infinity in the palm of your Hand, and Eternity in an hour.” Groucho Marx centuries later opined “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.” Whatever your take on the theme send your poem of four lines up to forty to be judged by the Klean-All poet, Victor Enns. He will award this year’s unique prize of an engraved hourglass and bragging rights for all of 2017 , on Sunday April 30th at the Ship and Plough open mic and poetry slam. If the judges choses,there may be a “read-off, and a true competitive slam. This contest is open all ages, though separate prizes will also be awarded for students.
Robins Donuts will be the Sunday, April 30th afternoon venue for students willing to read their work, or have their work read though they must be present. Student prizes will be awarded at this time.
Laundry repeats as an annual theme, as the Interlake Gimli Klean-All Laundromat is home to poetry and dirty laundry. Let us not forget the power of cleanliness to wash away alternative truths, and the smell of clean laundry, which reminds us thacleanliness is next to poetry; fiction is next to politics! Anyone can enter, the prize is a roll of loonies up to $25.00 to do laundry, thanks to Jane and Les – proprietors of the Klean-All, and the framed exhibition of the winning poem on the wall of the laundromat.
The competition is now open, the deadline is April 26, at 2pm. Entries by email preferred, sent to [email protected], or by mail to P.O. Box 1965, Gimli, MB. R0C 1BO, or handed to the Klean-All Poet while in residence Wednesdays, between 11:00 and 2pm. Because of the quick turn around NO late entries will be accepted.
Nothing will be returned, please send copies of poems only. They must have your name and contact information on every page. This should include a verifiable mailing address as Interlake residents and cottagers have priority. Triple A (Awkward Arbitrary Awards) will be awarded on the fly for the duration of the contest. The first goes to Carter Vance for being the first entry with the most tenuous connection to the Interlake. He lived in Selkirk for awhile and joined the Lake Winnipeg Writers’ Group.
And SURPRISE! there is no cost to enter. Get thinking, the clock is ticking. See you in the Klean-All!
V