Allyson Whipple

Category: challenges

  • February Poetry Contest: Golden Shovel

    Photo by Scott R on Pexels.com

    I can’t wait to see what y’all write for this month’s poetry contest! There are two prize options: 1) A $25 gift certificate to the independent bookstore of your choice, or 2) A $25 donation to the literacy nonprofit, aid organization, or public library of your choice. Please see the Monthly Contest Page for complete rules (there aren’t many) and past winners. This month’s deadline is Friday, February 20th.

    Prompt
    The golden shovel is a form invented by poet Terrance Hayes. He created it in homage to Gwendolyn Brooks. In honor of Black history month, the February contest is to write a golden shovel related to environmental or climate issues. Feel free to be creative with the source text. My friend E. Kristin Anderson has a series of golden shovels based on Ke$ha songs.

    If you’re unfamiliar with this form, read the poem “Golden Shovel” by Terrance Hayes as a reference point. Notice how the line endings in both parts are made up from Brooks’ “We Real Cool.” Notice how Hayes uses the words in a more straightforward way in the first section, and focuses more on sound in the section section. (Note: you do not need to write a multi-section poem; go with what works for you.)

    Email your golden shovel to allyson@allysonwhipple.com by 11:59 pm on February 20th. Please also send me the title and author of the poem or song you used as your source text. (Include a link if possible.) The winner will receive a gift certificate to the independent bookstore of their choice, or I will make a donation in their honor to a nonprofit.

  • January Poetry Contest Winner

    After much delay, I’m finally excited to announce the winner of the January poetry contest! I received a record number of entries this month, and on top of that, I had to move unexpectedly after my landlord sold my house! It’s a relief to be getting settled in my new place and back into a routine.

    Lisa Janice Cohen wrote the winning haiku. For the prize, she chose a $25 donation to the Central Texas Food Bank.

    Frost flowers
    A log’s jeweled heart 
    Fused in glass

    Thank you, Lisa! And thanks to everyone else who participated. I was especially heartened to see several entries from people who don’t consider themselves poets or writers.

  • January Poetry Contest

    First snow. Not impressed.

    It’s time for another poetry contest! I can’t wait to see what y’all send me this month. There are two prize options: 1) A $25 gift certificate to the independent bookstore of your choice, or 2) A $25 donation to the literacy nonprofit or public library of your choice. Please see the Monthly Contest Page for complete rules (there aren’t many) and past winners. This month’s deadline is Wednesday, January 20th at 11:59 pm.

    Prompt
    Write a haiku with the following theme: inside/outside. You do not have to include the theme words in your poem; explore different ways of embodying the theme through language and image. Haiku can range from 1-3 lines. 5-7-5 syllable structure is not required. Please keep haiku to approximately 17 total syllables for the entire poem.

    Email your haiku to allyson@allysonwhipple.com by 11:59 pm on January 20th. Given the brevity of the form, poems pasted into the body of the email are preferred. If you have unique formatting that requires submitting as and attachment, that’s fine.

  • December Contest Winner

    The source text for Christa Pandey’s poem

    I received a number of delightful holidays poems this month. In a year where I’ve felt out of touch with the holiday spirit (I didn’t even put up the tree), it was lovely to open my inbox and find poems from both good friends and distant acquaintances.

    This month’s winning poem is “Christmas Cento” by Christa Pandey. She used the hymnal One Faith/Una Voz (2005) as her source text. In the poem, you’ll see numbers next to each line; these denote the page in the hymnal where the line originally occurred.

    Christmas music is my favorite aspect of the winter season, and I have a special fondness for classical carols even though I’m not religious. I enjoyed seeing the ways in which Christa made something new out of traditional music.

    As her prize, Christa chose a donation to Conspirare.

    Christmas Cento 

    397 It came upon a midnight clear,
    400 the darkness everywhere,
    376 the silent stars go by, 
    397 o’er all the weary world 
    374 they traveled on together
    400 amid the cold of winter. 

    397 Beneath life’s crushing load
    397 the days are hastening on,
    390 let nothing you dismay 
    379 nor thorns infest the ground,
    383 wing your flight o’er all the earth
    397 above this sad and lowly plain. 

    376 No ear may hear his coming,
    380 silent night, holy night, 
    382 say what may the tidings be?
    380 All is calm, all is bright,
    390 all you within this place 
    380 sleep in heavenly peace. 

    374 Lo, when they had heard it
    387 joyful all ye nations rise 
    383 ever more your voices raising,
    392 the stars in the sky 
    382 and the mountains in reply
    390 each other now embrace. 

    379 Let us our songs employ,
    382 echo back their joyous strains,
    379 let every heart prepare him room,
    400 dispel in glorious splendor
    376 the hopes and fears of all the years
    390 when we were gone astray. 

    374 There shone a holy light,
    383 brighter visions beam afar,
    387 join the triumph of the skies,
    383 sages leave your contemplation,
    390 with true love and charity
    404 the king of kings salvation brings.

    378 O come let us adore him, 
    378 joyful and triumphant, 
    382 come adore on bended knee, 
    404 bring him incense, gold and myrrh. 
    387 Christ is born in Bethlehem, 
    379 he rules the world with truth and grace.

  • December Poetry Contest

    It’s time for another poetry contest! I can’t wait to see what y’all send me this month. I’m now offering two options for prizes: 1) A $25 gift certificate to the independent bookstore of your choice, or 2) A $25 donation to the literacy nonprofit or public library of your choice. Please see the Monthly Contest Page for complete rules (there aren’t many) and past winners. This month’s deadline is Tuesday, December 15th at 11:59 pm.

    Prompt
    I love the cento form. It’s a kind of collage poem, where you build a piece out of found text, usually other people’s poems. You can find out more about the cento here: https://poets.org/glossary/cento.

    Create a holiday cento. It can be any holiday from any tradition; you don’t have to limit yourself to the impending winter festivities. You can draw from poems, but also feel free to explore other types of text. Try creating cento out of liturgical passages or prayers. Dig into that pile of greeting cards you’ve saved from Easter, Valentine’s Day, or Christmas past. Create a cento out of advertising copy for holiday sales. Email your poem to allyson@allysonwhipple.com by 11:59 pm on December 15th. The winner will receive a gift certificate to the independent bookstore of their choice, or I will make a donation in their honor to a literacy nonprofit.

  • November Poetry Contest Winner

    Thanks to those who participated in the November poetry challenge! One of the fun things has been seeing who enters. I received poems from people that I had no idea were interested in writing!

    Image Credit: Paul McGuire

    This month’s winner is my friend, Colleen Miller. In lieu of a gift certificate, Colleen opted for a donation in her honor to Room to Read, an organization that promotes literacy and girls’ education. Here’s the winning poem!

    G’mornink

    The feathered chonk plomps on my shoulder. “Bonjourno! My funny, gray angster.

    She laughs and explains the situation.
    “Good girl!”

    Only two words, but I catch her meaning. She has indeed been well behaved today and deserves a reward.

    I hold a slice of Lite-Brite pink grapefruit out on my palm.

    Dancing excitedly, my ersatz child digs her black beak into the acidic flesh.

    In an instant, her reward becomes my regret as it squirts to land in my eye.

    Life. It would be nothing without these bad surprises from good decisions.

  • November Poetry Contest

    I’m excited for another round of the Monthly Poetry Contest! This time around, I’ve extended the deadline so that people have more time to draft and send a poem. Once again, the prize is a $25 gift card to the independent bookstore of the winner’s choosing. See the Monthly Poetry Contest page for complete rules (there aren’t many).

    Prompt
    Last month, I had a dream where an angel allowed me to see my favorite writer’s afterlife records. One of the tabs in the folder was labeled, “Bad Surprises from Good Decisions.” When I woke up, that phrase stayed with me.

    Write a poem of any length, using “Bad Surprises from Good Decisions” either in your title and/or the poem itself. Emailyour poem to allyson@allysonwhipple.com by 11:59 pm on November 15th. The winner will receive a gift certificate to the independent bookstore of their choice.

  • We have a winner!

    Congratulations to Carol Dorf, winner of my inaugural monthly poetry contest! She won a $25 gift card to East Bay Booksellers.

    Yes, inaugural winner, because this was so much fun that I’m going to run it again! Details in early November.

    For now, please enjoy Carol’s winning poem!

    At this Resolution

    How do ants avoid drowning,
    and how sympathetic to their plight

    should I be? I admit I am a monster
    when they form lines across the counter.

    They (and I) wish I were on a sofa
    zoning into the NBA finals, or maybe

    attempting to mimic the choreography
    that follows the irresistible rise of k-pop.

    © Carol Dorf, 2020

  • Poetry in a Pandemic: My First Year of PoPoFest

    The beautiful assortment of cards I received

    I first heard about the Poetry Postcard Festival in 2014; I have several friends who participate every year. I never joined, largely because I was afraid to put up money and then not actually follow through with it. But since I didn’t get to attend any poetry festivals or go on vacation this year, when I saw in Submittable that the 2020 registration deadline was closing soon, I decided to give it a shot. This was a chance to connect with other poets, and to maybe get some postcards from places I’d never been.

    I didn’t actually struggle to get my poems out in the month of August. In fact, sitting down to write a tiny poem became the highlight of my month. I gave myself prompts by drawing a card from my Emily Dickinson tarot deck. I then had to tie the theme of the tarot card to the theme of the postcard. I knew that the reader on the other end would never actually see the tarot card I used, but my goal was to write each poem so that you wouldn’t need to know what had prompted me to start it. Usually I wrote my first poem of the day before walking Astrid. I would sometimes write three or four in a day if I was feeling especially inspired.

    I also developed an affection for vintage postcards. When I started PoPoFest, I had a sizeable stack of postcards, most of which had come from my various travels. Some, though, were vintage postcards I’d found in antique stores. I found that I had the most fun writing poems for the old-fashioned cards, and when my stack ran out halfway through, I ordered two dozen vintage postcards from an Etsy seller to get me through, with enough to spare for next year. I also found myself especially charmed by the vintage postcards I received. One of my favorites is an old postcard of a Tokyo hotel. Since I had to cancel my trip to Japan this year, that card had an air of serendipity to it. In a time when I’ve been unable to see my friends or attend in-person poetry readings, receiving tiny poems in the mail brought a regular sense of joy and gratitude to the long, stifling days of Texas summer.

    Some people in my group were ambitious and got their postcards out early, so I started receiving mail in July. Some people didn’t get their postcards out by August 31st (some people in my group had to deal with the fire situation), but I actually loved how the postcards trickled into September. I felt like it extended the celebration of poetry.

    I loved being part of PoPoFest, and I am definitely going to sign up again for 2021. Hopefully we’ll have gotten through this pandemic by next August, but I’ll still cherish the sense of connection that this festival brings.

  • Blackout Canto #15

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