2013 Guidelines Posted

Edgar Allan Poe called poetry “the rhythmic creation of beauty.” Thomas Macaulay said it is the “art of doing by means of words what the painter does by means of colors.”

Poetry can say things that could not be said through any other medium and would not mean the same if put any other way. It expresses depths of imagination and emotion that few other crafts or art forms can match.

The amount of precision and practice necessary for good poetry can often be intimidating, but don’t let it stop you. Read great poems, study the forms, and practice training your ideas to flow in way that has, as T.S. Eliot said, “perfection of form with a significance of feeling.”