---DETAILS, FROST FOUNDATION 2020 ROBERT FROST POETRY AWARD-----

   should be postmarked:
     between  October 1 (2019)
     and 
    February 15 (2020)
    ...including those dates

  NOTE:   THIS IS A MAIL-ONLY CONTEST, TO BE MAILED
     TO THE LAWRENCE , MASS PUBLIC LIBRARY. SEE DETAILS BELOW.
     no email or submittable entries please..

---------DEADLINE:  LAST POSTMARK OF FEBRUARY 15th, 2020-----------------

GUIDELINES:
    ---Prizes will be awarded as follows:
    ---First Prize,     $1000
      Best 10 poems will be mentioned
         (others as as honorable mention, not ranked with number)
       

-----------------
The contest theme:    "INSIGHTS"

  Robert Frost often came to awesome philosophical/psychological
   insights in his poems, using humans and/or nature, and coming
   to some great insight about the human condition.
   Some great examples include "The Road Not Taken", "Mending Wall",
   and "The Tuft Of Flowers".  There are dozens like this, of course.

A great poem is less about what it is
     than ... what it does....to you, and especially to an audience.
    We have never needed a call to think carefully more than now.

That's what we want, why we read as a diverse group, and we we are
    not too fussy about any particular type. It is the impact on listeners
    or readers that matters.
    Poetry can be relevant and important to the public.
    So......give it your best shot!


SEND YOUR POEM(s) BY POSTAL MAIL:

    ----Send originals of up to 10 poems of up to 55 lines each,
               (based on 12 point font, 8.5x11 page)

    ----Include one copy of each poem with no contact information,
         just title and poem. These will be numbered for blind judging.

    ----Include a second copy of each poem with name, address, email,
           phone #, etc. at the top of the page

    ---- Include a check for $8 per submitted poem
      (check made out to:  Robert Frost Foundation)



    ---- Mail to:
             Robert Frost Award
             Lawrence Library
            51 Lawrence St
            Lawrence MA 01841.



Additional guidelines:

          •Poems should be postmarked
              between
                  October 1 (2019)
            and  February 15 (2020)
                   to be considered for the yearly award.

          •Prior published work (nationally visible in print,
                   online, or contest mention) is not allowed.
                (But tuning up poems circulated at
                   critique groups, or practiced at open mics is aok,
                   and is recommended!)
   
          •Manuscripts will not be returned
   
          •Submissions with poems that do not comply will be discarded.
            (check will be discarded as well....not deposited)

          •Winners (and the websites)
              will be notified in late March 2020
                 of the judges' decisions

         •The Robert Frost Foundation will have the right to publish the poem,
          in the announcements, online,  and in promotional activities.   All other rights
           of publication will revert to the author.

          •For a list of winners, please  visit  frostnewsline.blogspot.com
             and look for the article title mentioning the prize winners.
                   (Or look at this blog)

          •Officers and Directors of The Robert Frost Foundation
               as well as festival organizers are not eligible to enter the award.

          •Entries will be read and judged by members of the Frost Board

      Contestants under 18 years of age not allowed unless there is an
         accompanying note from parent or guardian.



----------------------------------------


Frost Foundation Poetry Prize: history

2019  Arne Weingart, "Caterpillar"
2018 Jerome Gagnon , "Cherries, After"
2016. [ No competition]
2014. "Roadsiding Hay" by Franklin Zawacki
2013. "November Guest" by Alfred Nicol
2012. [No competition this year.]
2011. "Constellation" by Sally Albiso
2010. "The Great Disappointment" by Adam Tavel
2009. "Crossing to Fox Island" by Gregory Loselle
2008. "Double Wedding Ring" by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck
2007. "Henry Jones of Wales" by Barbara Adams
2006. [poem] by Rob Smith
2005. "The Effects of Light on a Woman's Body" by Susan Somers-Willett
2004. "To do to Beans" by Megan Grumbling
2003. "Aristaeus" by Ned Balbo
2002. "Sheepdog Trials at Bleanau Feistenog" by Deborah Warren
2001. "First Light" by Vivian Shipley
2000. "Overheard" by Len Krisak
1999. "Echolation" by Diane Thie
1997. "Visiting Frost's Grave" by Patricia Fargnoli

----------2019 Robert Frost Poetry Contest  Results-------

First Prize: 
    "Caterpillar"                Author:  Arne Weingart , Chicago  Ill.
Runners-up:
"I Plan On Haunting"        Author:   Lucy Ricciardi , Greenwich CT
"Wild Man"                      Author:   Arne Weingart , Chicago  Ill
"Loner"                           Author:   Michael Poluzzi, Highland NY
"Full Glow"                      Author:   Linda Flaherty Haltmaier, Andover MA
"Late Harvest"                  Author:   Toni Treadway, Rowley MA
"The Big Room"               Author:    Mark Bohrer, North Andover MA
"Letter to Hayden:
    In the Afterlife"            Author:    George Drew, Poestenkill NY
 "The Suicide Returns
  To Leave A Note"           Author:    Arne Weingart , Chicago  Ill
"Uncle Eli"                       Author:    Blanche Jenkins, Detroit MI


You may notice that the same author can appear multiple times.
The scoring is blind and is based on each poem, not the poet.

Thanks to all submitters and readers!


---------------1st place-----------------------------------------------


Caterpillar

                                     ---Arne Weingart


I send you this photograph of a caterpillar
from Virginia. He, or she – how would I ever know? ­–

is impossibly fuzzy, perhaps a sign of harsher
than normal winter lurking in the hills
where they ride horses and hunt deer.

The caterpillar has not yet found out that they
are shooting Jews in Pittsburgh, right in the middle

of Saturday morning services. They will not
have had the chance to put the Torah away
yet, to wrap it up like a perpetually well-behaved

baby and sing it back to sleep in its velvet-lined ark,
or to hear a sermon on how to heal the world,

much less to say a prayer for the anniversaries
of the deaths of all their dead relatives. They
won’t be getting around to that this morning

in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,
where Jews go to remind themselves that whatever

happened once can and will happen again
and where, if it were an actual tree, caterpillars
will emerge in the spring, dangling from newly

green leaves, preparing themselves as best
they can remember how to become something
that sheds history like a sad old coat and takes flight.

--------------------a runner up-----------------

I plan on haunting
                      ---Lucy Ricciardi


I plan on haunting this house
some time soon or in a few years,
not to be possessive, or to scare
the grandchildren or to settle
scores, and not to make a big deal
of it, but to complete my to do list
in post death thoughts about how
today there was a sound in the house
that wanders like a lost bird.  Or
like the rainwater talking garbled
words and swallowing itself.
The new owners will say it’s the wind
in the two pipes set up on our roof
funneling runoff from the chimney
flashing to the gutters, to collect the
efflorescence that would otherwise
stain the shingles, but I will be the wind
in the pipe and the voices in the faucet
and the stubborn film on the roof.
Tell me you don’t hear your mother’s
voice murmelling softly. Of course this
is just a lullaby I’m singing to myself,
assaulted not by the traffic, but the
silence of the suburbs on a Sunday night.


---------------a runner up---------------------

Loner-
     ---Michael Poluzzi


the story of a loner down on his luck,
doing what he can to make a lousy buck.
His prayers go unanswered but he still tries,
walking the street corner the alley fills with his cries.

 Waking up just another day gone by,
been a while since his spirits been high-
the anger of the loner,struggling for his sanity-
the sadness of the loner-ready to turn his back on society-
the world of the loner-tragedy is his reality.

Disability checks came evaporated like water,
a sorry basket case from a vietnam slaughter.
Betrayed by his own government another vet shafted,
it wasnt the future he saw the day he was drafted.

"Never say die"- carried over from a senseless war,
somehow keeping his faith waiting to knock on opportunities door.

 Woke up one monday his luck finally changed,
landed a part-time job as if god had arranged.
An old war buddy heard his sad story from his ex-wife,
now an auto parts worker with a purpose in life.

 Working hard and putting in his time,
even met a woman his turnaround is doing fine.
Loner no more finally getting his due,
feeling quite happy about the red,white,and blue. 

-----------------a runner up---------------------------

The Big Room
   Or an evening walk in the rhyming universe
              ---Mark Bohrer

The evening sky brightens outside, and draws light from my room.
The dogs, impatient at my feet, want to move, let’s leave this tomb.
I laugh, is the workday through? Their leashes on, and mine, undone,
we step into the outer room, now the realm of the setting sun.

It’s eventide, half summer, as we step into the gloaming,
into that room with no ceiling, the three of us go roaming.
Into the warm quiet nightfall, we enter this swirling place.
Leaving our home, my dogs take me on a trip through time and space.

The fading light is stealing, background radiation, fleeing,
new stars and planets are appearing, pearls in a pink champagne sea.
As the swirling sky darkens, what’s left still ignites my brain.
It leaves me with this feeling, our familiar world is strange.

It looks as if I’m standing on the edge of an open field.
It looks like a man with two dogs – instead the infinite, revealed.
I feel the arrow of time, the sky aquiver with twilight.
My hand draws the bow of the Archer, his dart flies across the night.

In this room, my hand can reach to the edge of space and beyond.
From me to that star, I could skip a stone across this pond.
Can my spirit bear the lightness of The All within my reach?
Yet here I am, in the big room, dizzy, with dogs at my feet.

Overhead, there to the right, shines Vega, Mister Sagan’s star.
He had a billion or two to share, but this one was the door.
Twenty-five light years, a short step away, Contact was the book,
where Ms. Foster met her Dad, or an alien with a kindly look.

How can all this be so welcoming? It could squash me like a bug.
But it doesn’t seem so inclined – somehow it feels more like a hug.
A hadron glow still warms the sky, and the worlds around each star.
The radiation might be dangerous, but still, it warms my heart.

----------------a runner up----------------------------------

Uncle Eli

                    -----Blanche Jenkins

Did you know my Uncle Eli?

he danced with the stars

tied ribbons to the moon

and tamed the storm with his bare hands

Did you know my Uncle Eli?

he paved the streets with smiles

and pirated the sun

for treasures of love

He stood tall as the trees

and calm as the night

Did you know him?

You can see him in shadows

of love

Dear Participants:

      Thank you all for your poems!  There are twice as many this second year of the
       contest rebirth.   Envelopes came in from local places and  all over the country.
     

      Thanks again all of you and hope to see you in future events and competitions.

      Stay tuned for announcements at   robertfrostcontest.blogspot.com
      and at   frostnewsline.blogspot.com 
       Winner/runners-up should be announced by about the start of April 2019.

       Every poem will be read at least two and as many as 5 (for the top ten) times.
       On the way to widely-memorable poems, it is important to see different people
       agree in their appreciation.       


----The Robert Frost Foundation Board  (In the  Lawrence Mass Public Library)