After the announcement of the Prose Litmas Contest, I bet you poets (and wannabe poets) were wondering when the poetry contest was going to surface. Well, here it is, and it has a nice, comfy deadline, so don't worry about not having enough time.

The challenge

You are to give a gift -- or many gifts -- to a person. The person can be anyone: real, fictional, imaginary. You can choose to mention who the person is, if you like, but it's not necessary. As long as you have a specific person in mind, you're good to go. This gift (or gifts) must be an experience of some kind. They must be sensory, i.e. relating to one or more of the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. Like say, a basket of sunlight, or the smell of toast, or the sound of change falling on the ground. Just be more... original than that. Then write your gift(s) into a cohesive poem.

There's another rule. You have to write a formal poem. No free verse allowed. Some of you might need resources for this, so here goes:

Metre Learning Guide by `darkcrescendo, posted at ~PoetryLibrary
Write #6: Form(ing) Poetry by ^lovetodeviate
Tips for Editing Poetry by !suture
If you're looking for poetic forms, try my Resource Central, under Writing: Poetry > Forms of poetry.

Make sure your poems sound good. Since you are attempting formal poetry, you will most probably be writing in metre and/or using a rhyme scheme, which helps the sonics. You can also use alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme and other sound devices to make your poem aurally orgasmic. (Where did I learn that phrase from?)

Let's recap:

Write a poem-gift for someone, incorporating one or more senses.
Make sure the poem is formal in nature. You have complete freedom over form, as long as it's not free verse. It's not a bad idea to mention which form you're using in the author's comments, especially if it's a rare form.
Make your poem aurally orgasmic. (I'm going to be saying this a lot. )
Your line limit is 40 lines or thereabouts.

Submission

Your entry to the contest must be written specifically written for this contest and submitted after December 15, 2008. Submit to Contests and Projects > Contests > 2008 > Sensing Winter.

If you have any questions, please note ^lovetodeviate.

Deadline

Midnight CST, January 15, 2009

Judges

Judging criteria

How well the form matches the intent of the poem and execution of formal constraints
Overall quality of the poem, with special attention to sonics
Overall appeal of the poem
The X factor

Prizes

First place

One year subscription
Basic Artist’s Bag

Second place

Six month subscription
Emoticon stress balls
Calendar of your choice

Third place

Three month subscription
Calendar of your choice