Contest Deadline Looms!!!!!

Poets & Patrons 58th Annual CHICAGOLAND POETRY CONTEST Deadline: September 1, 2014
PRIZES: $45, $20, $10 and three HMs in each category. Non-members may enter all open categories (1 poem per category) for $15; members may enter for $12. Each additional poem $2 ($1 for members).

1. #1  RELIGIOUS POEM (open to all)
   
2. #2  HUMOROUS POEM (open to all)
   
3. #3  FORMAL VERSE (open to all)
   
4. #4  FREE VERSE (open to all)
   
5. #5  SOCIAL CONSCIENCE (open to all)
   
6. #6  MINIATURE POEM (open to all)
   
7. #7  NATURE (open to all)
   
8. #8  MIDWEST THEME (open to members and Chicagoland residents)
   
9. #9  CHICAGO ART and/or ARCHITECTURE (open to members and
   Chicagoland residents)
   
10. #10  CHICAGO NEWS, POLITICS, & HISTORY (open to members and Chicagoland residents)
    
11. #11  CHICAGOLAND WATER: Waterways, Fountains, or other (open to members and Chicagoland residents)
    
12. #12  CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (open to members and Chicagoland residents)
    

CONTEST RULES
Categories #1 through #7 are open to all. Categories #8 through #12 are open to members and other persons living within 100 miles of Chicago. Poems must be in English and unpublished. Poems may not be entered if they have won earlier cash awards from Poets & Patrons. Do not enter the same poem in two or more categories. Line limit: 60 lines. Miniature poem: 12 lines.
Type or computer-generate on 8 1⁄2 x 11” standard paper. Use no unusual fonts or graphics. Send 2 copies of each poem. In the upper right-hand corner of each copy, place number, category, form of poem (for Formal) and the title of the poem. At the top left of one copy, place ID (name, address, web address, and phone number of poet). Do not staple pages together, unless your poem takes a second page. Label these p. 1 and p. 2. Organize your entries by category number, first the identified copy, and then the unidentified copy. Please send all entries flat, in a single mailing, using first class mail, postmarked no later than September 1, 2014. Be sure to enclose your check ($15; $12 for members) made payable to Poets & Patrons, Inc.
If you want a winners’ list, enclose SASE.
Send entries, inquiries, and fees to: Barbara Eaton, Contest Chair, 416 Gierz Street, Downers Grove, IL 60515-3838. Poet retains all rights. Poems will not be returned. Judges are out-of-state professionals, and their decisions are final. Winners will be notified in mid-October, and awards will be presented at the Awards Celebration in late October. Winners will also be posted at www.poetsandpatrons.net.
POETS & PATRONS HONORED SPONSORS

Camile Balla
Charlotte Digregorio
John Gordon
Eve Lomoro
Donna Pucciani
Tom Roby
Jenene Ravesloot
Judith Tullis
Bakul Banerjee
Barbara Eaton
Caroline Johnson
Wilda Morris
Beth Staas
Linda Wallin
W. Clement Stone
The daughters of Helen Schaible

Poets and Patrons August Workshop

August 23, 2014 - POETS AND PATRONS CRITIQUING WORKSHOP: EKPHRASTIC POETRY – writing poems about other art
forms
Led By Donna Vorreyer and Cynthia Gallagher.
Ekphrastic poems are poems
written about works of art,
paintings, sculpture, or photo-
graphs. Most definitions include
poems about architecture, films,
novels, symphonies, operas,
and other arts as well. You can
find a large number of examples
of Ekphrastic poems side-by-side
with the works of art that inspired
them at http://valerie6.myweb.uga.edu/ekphrasticpoetry.html.
Donna Vorreyer’s collection, A House of Many Windows, is available from Sundress Publications. Her work has appeared in many journals including Rhino, Redactions, Lablettter, Linebreak, Cider Press Review, Stirring, Sweet, wicked alice, and Weave. Her fifth chapbook, We Build Houses of Our Bodies was released in late 2013 by Dancing Girl Press and her second full-length manuscript Washed with Hymns and Singing is slated for release in 2016.
Cynthia Gallaher is listed on Chicago Public Library's "Top 10 Requested Chicago Poets." Her most recently published chapbook "Omnivore Odes: Poems About Food, Herbs and Spices" was published by Finishing Line Press (2013). She holds a degree in the History of Art and Architecture from UIC and is working on a new manuscript "Leaning Tower of Touhy and Other Ekphrastic Poems."

Join us for this Poets & Patrons Workshop Saturday, August 23, at 1:00 p.m. in Room 6N (on the third floor of the Harold Washington Library at 400 S. State Street.) NOTE: THIS ROOM IS ON THE THIRD FLOOR. LIBRARY STAFF MEMBERS MAY NOT BE ABLE TO TELL YOU WERE WE ARE MEETING..
Some members will gather at Panera’s on the southeast corner of State and Congress (diagonally across the street from the library) between 11:30 and noon, to eat lunch or drink a cup of coffee or tea and socialize before the meeting. You are welcome to join us there.

Donna Vorreyer and Cynthia Gallagher

"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"
William Carlos Williams (1962)
According to Brueghel when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing his field
the whole pageantry
of the year was awake tingling near
the edge of the sea concerned
with itself
sweating in the sun that melted
the wings' wax
unsignificantly off the coast there was
a splash quite unnoticed this was
Icarus drowning
Upcoming Workshops:
October 25 at the Hinsdale Public Library: reading of winning poems from our annual contest, and a workshop on Haiku, led by Charlotte Digregorio.
Write! Chicago Workshop:
August 14, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Contact Caroline Johnson at twinkscat@aol.com or 708-839-1699 for more information.

The optional assignment for August is to write an ekphrastic poem, i.e., a poem inspired by a painting or another creative work. The poem can be free or formal verse. Poems submitted in advance will be critiqued at the meeting, if the author is present. You are always free to ignore the assignment and submit another kind of poem instead.
Members may mail their poems to Wilda Morris, 499 Falcon Ridge Way, Bolingbrook IL 60440, by August 13, or (preferably) email them to wildamorris@ameritech.net by August 17 (put P & P in the subject line). If mailing, send a check for $5 per poem submitted ($10 for non-members), made out to Poets & Patrons. (Non-members may attend a couple of meetings before deciding to join. Or send $20 for 2014 membership and $5 with a poem for critique). If you email your poem(s) bring your check to the workshop or mail it to Beth Staas at 1634 Barnsdale Road, LaGrange Park IL 60526. E-mail questions (or late poems) to Wilda. If you do not get a reply to an e-mailed poem, call Wilda at 630/739-2983 to be sure your poem was received. You may send a maximum of two poems for critique; the fee must be paid for each poem submitted.

Haiku Events

Haikuists

Please note two upcoming events and please RSVP:

Saturday, Aug. 16 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Winnetka (IL) Public Library, 768 Oak St., Winnetka, there will be a three-hour critique. You can bring poems to share or just come to listen and learn.

There is free parking both at the Library and across the street in the Village Hall area. As the time gets closer, I will know how many people will be attending and how many copies of your poems you should bring.

Critique is always beneficial for attendees, and many report having gotten poems published that we worked on collectively.

Saturday, Aug. 23, at 8 p.m. at Madame ZuZu's Tea House, 582 Roger Williams Ave., Highland Park, IL, I will be hosting a  poetry open mic. It is sponsored by Highland Park Poetry. Please attend and bring your best poems to share, whether haiku or other forms. (Read only tasteful poetry!) Madame ZuZu's has a nice ambiance, and many area poets and residents show up regularly.

Charlotte Digregorio
Midwest Regional Coordinator
Haiku Society of America

Write! Chicago August 14, 2014

Write! Chicago

Dear Poets,
Join us Thursday, August 14, for the next Write! Chicago outing as we venture up north to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum for a fun-filled afternoon.
The museums hosts many exhibits.  Some include:
Nature's Struggle:
Survival & Extinction
Take a guided journey through the history of biodiversity in three distinct time periods: 1820, 1905 and 2014. Experience the difference in our environment over time, the causes of those changes, and the startling consequences of our everyday actions.
The Dreams of Martha
Watercolors by Kristina Knowski
2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the last known passenger pigeon, fondly known as Martha. Knowski’s work invites us to uncover the mystery and fragile beauty of these long lost and threatened animals.
Judy Istock Butterfly Haven
The Judy Istock Butterfly Haven is the museum's internationally renowned signature 2,700 square foot greenhouse. Home to more than 1,000 butterflies (75 species), the haven is the perfect tropical retreat.

Other exhibits include “Prairie Splendor” (photography), “Rare Nature:  Endangered Species Print Project,” “Extreme Green House,” “Mysteries of the Marsh,” “Nature Trails,” “RiverWorks,” and “Birds of Chicago.”  If we can’t find a poem here, we are not poets!!

Thursdays are suggested donation days for Illinois residents. Normal admission is $9 for adults, and $7 for students and seniors (60+).
The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is located at 2430 N Cannon Dr, Chicago, IL 60614, or just off of Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton Parkway.  It seems like driving is the best way to get to the museum, and free parking is available on Cannon and Stockton Drive.
 
We will meet at 11 a.m. by the entrance.  As usual, we will disperse to view the various exhibits individually, then convene to write and share and eat lunch.

To RSVP, e-mail Caroline Johnson at twinkscat@aol.com.  A group of us will be carpooling from the western suburbs, so if you want to join our group, let us know in your e-mail.