It’s my birthday, but I’m giving out the presents. Let’s have a flash contest, shall we? I’m looking for Outlander-inspired poetry. Any kind of poetry. And the ones that I think are best – by whatever criteria I choose to use – will win some very nice prizes – a beautiful pair of Dragonfly earrings, a journal, and others. Below are the details and rules. NOTE THAT THE CONTEST IS ON MONDAY, JUNE 23 ONLY! I’m giving you the weekend to work on your entry.
Here is my poem, to get you started off:
There once was a laddie named Jamie
Who fell hard for a lass, d’ye blame he?
Her arse was so round
Made ‘im feel like a hound
So he said, My Claire, ye ken I can tame ye.
You MUST follow the rules – rules are there for a reason, and the reason for these rules is to see if you can follow them.
1. The contest is open for 24 hours only, from midnight Monday, June 23 to 11:59 pm June 23, CENTRAL U.S. time. Entries received before or after will not be considered for the contest – make sure you have a current time zone map! (but they still may be published, see rule #6) I’ll be happy to mail prizes outside the U.S.
2. Do not post your entry in the comments below. All entries must be emailed to erin.conrad@threeifbyspace.net. If you post below, we will all enjoy your verse, but it will not count toward the contest. Please include your name and your email address and/or Twitter handle with your poem. If you have the winning entry, I will contact you for prize-mailing information.
3. Any kind of poetry, as long as it is Outlander-inspired, is great. Haiku, limericks, Elizabethan sonnets, free-form, rhyming or non-rhyming. Odes to a character, odes to Diana, your feelings, your disgust over the medical scenes, funny poems, serious poems.
4. But limit yourself to no more than 20 lines, please. I have a short attention span.
5. One entry per person. That’s it. And don’t send a second, saying, “please disregard the first one, I like this one better.”
6. By submitting an entry to this contest, you give threeifbyspace permission to reprint your poem in any forum we choose (here, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) There will be no payment involved – in either direction. Please don’t try to bribe the judge. (oh, go ahead. Try.) (but for professional writers out there saying WAIT!!! – you still retain your own publication rights.)
7. Poems must be your own work (ok, you, your kids, your hubby – but not something you find in someone else’s book or blog).
I will publish the winning entry, as well as any others that I particularly enjoy. All decisions are final.
SO! There you go. Don’t worry if you’ve never written a poem before or think it might not be good enough – you never know, my standards aren’t high, and I’m more looking for what tickles me, rather than what is great poetry. (And as that was not great grammar, you can see what I mean.)
Take the weekend. Scribble away. Watch the time zone carefully. Comment below if you have any questions or need clarification. I’ll try to answer, but I have a really busy weekend. And I’ll look forward to seeing all the wonderful entries on Monday!
