You could win a prize and have a photo displayed at the upcoming Dodge Poetry Festival!
“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off,” Emily Dickinson famously said, “I know that is poetry.”
Coming up with a one-size-fits-all definition of “poetry” is impossible, but one thing we know for certain is that poetry isn’t just print on a page or words recited aloud; poetry is all around us, and somehow, we all seem to know it when we see it (or hear it, or feel it, or taste it…). The beauty lies in how everyone experiences this moment of recognition differently: it seems that poetry is in the eye of the beholder.
We’ve been asking our social media followers to share the moments in their days that make them feel as if the tops of their heads were taken off, and they’ve been responding with photos of poetry in their lives (a breathtaking sunset, a great cup of coffee, a new pair of running shoes), accompanied by the hashtag “poetrytome”.
With the Dodge Poetry Festival less than one month away, we’ve decided to put a fun twist on this hashtag. For the next few weeks leading up to the start of the Festival on October 23rd,we’ll be providing a few lines of poetry from Festival Poets once a week via our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and blog. We’re asking you to take and share a photo that, in your eyes, embodies those lines. By simply snapping a photo and using the hashtag “poetrytome,” you will be entering for a chance to win a prize and see your photo displayed at the upcoming Dodge Poetry Festival this October!
The first line of poetry comes from returning Festival Poet Mark Doty’s poem “In the Airport Marshes,” from his book Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems:
“How do you reckon your little music?”
…Well? How do you? Don’t be afraid to get creative!
UPDATE: Lines for Week 2!
From Eavan Boland‘s poem “Tree of Life,” in her book The Lost Land:
“Let love
be the light that shows again
the blossom to the root.”
UPDATE: Lines for Week 3!
From Benjamin Alire Sáenz‘s poem “The Boy Wants to Know About Names,” in his book Elegies in Blue:
“He read and listened. Learned. He loved, he
Loved the books. And loved the lips. And learned
To love the learning.”
#poetrytome
Visit our Facebook (Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival), Twitter (@DodgePoetryFest), Instagram (@dodgepoetry), and website (www.DodgePoetry.org) for updates!