POETREE COMPETITION Earth Love editor, Tracy Patrick, and Indiana-based poet and editor, Stacy Smith, are proud to announce a global ‘poetree’ competition. We are looking for poems written on behalf of, or in homage to, those masters of the shade, givers of fruit and life and, not forgetting, the paper on which we write – our neglected arboreal friends and companions – the TREES! We don’t need to tell you that nearly 36 million acres of natural forest is lost each year. All anyone has to do is look at the area in which they live. Think of how it looked a century ago, even a decade ago, and how much of the natural landscape of trees has given way to development. The aim of this competition is to remind people of the importance of trees, not only for their color and beauty, but as a habitat for wildlife, a source of food, medicine and, ultimately, of life. We are looking for poems about trees – whether it be an ode to the tree outside your window, an elegy to the rainforests, or the tree where you carved your lover’s name – we want to know about it! Deadline: December 30, 2009 Entry fee: $1 (£1.00) per poem Poetry Awards: 1st place: $40 (£25.00) 2nd place: $25 (£15.00) 3rd place: $10 (£6.00) Selected entries will be published in a chapbook Rules: Entries must be about trees. Poems must be no longer than 40 lines. Unpublished poetry submissions preferred, but previously published work is acceptable if the rights belong to the author. No limit on number of entries submitted. To enter, submit one typed copy of each poem. Enclose an entry page with your name, address, telephone number, email if applicable, title of all entries and amount of fees enclosed. If your work is to be considered for publication, you must put on the entry page that you give your permission to have your work published in the chapbook and that you are the author of the poetry and own the rights to it, in the event it is chosen. Students may enter, but if their work is to be considered for publication, a parent or guardian must sign the entry page stating that permission is given to have the student’s work published in the chapbook, in the event it is chosen. (Note: The name of the state/region and country in which each author lives will be included in the chapbook.) All rights to the poetry remain with the author. Publication of the chapbook will be through Shadowpoetry.com. To help defer the cost of publication, there is an entry fee of $1 (£1) per poem entered. Authors of top twenty poems will receive a complimentary copy of the chapbook. All royalties from the chapbook will go directly to Ancient Forest International.
www.ancientforest.org U.S. Residents, send entry page, entries, and fees to:
Poetree Contest UK Residents and International Entrants, send entry Attn: Stacy Smith page, entries and fees (in UK pounds) to: 2700 Chippewa Dr. Earth Love Anderson, IN 46012, PO Box 11219 USA Paisley (Make check payable to Stacy Smith) PA1 2WH, Scotland, UK
No entries will be returned. Winners list we be posted on both websites below. Enclose SAE for results if not checking winners list online. For questions, email Stacy Smith: srsmith25@yahoo.com or Earth Love: earth.love@hotmail.co.uk (Email for enquiries only - no submissions.) http://srsmith25.tripod.com/tranquilmoments/index.html http://earthlovepoetrymagazine.co.uk/default.aspx 
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earth love poetry competition
Please enjoy the following poems from Isabella Strachan, Jack Hastie and Hilary Vance, winners of the 2004 earth love poetry competition.
Tracy Patrick
Editor
SNOW LEOPARD
By Isabella Strachan
She's never seen the yellow Gobi's sands;
a winter cat, born into an enclosure.
The bars would spoil a photograph.
So take a sheet of paper, pencil in
the desert rocks and crags behind her head.
Her coat needs grey and blackest ink
for flank and back and turned-up tail;
white where her softness lies against the snow.
The cold light eyes look round, the small ears twitch.
Briefly, her claws emerge.
She's like a highborn lady from Pekin,
in silk, with porcelain face behind her fan,
sent to a Tartar khan, who keeps
an agile silver dagger next her skin.
WILD BOAR
By Jack Hastie
Visceral grunt, sour-sharp stink
arrest school parties here.
More bear than pig
he roots the dead bark
of his fenced pen
round and about, about, about
impatient, following the satellite dish
of his nose.
He raises his enormous, bristling face
and peers shortly
through tiny slit-shut eyes;
then busies himself again
muttering and mumbling angrily
among coke cans and crisp packets.
In dreams
he is bold in his lair
swerving at bay
to scatter scraps of dogs, yelping
tusked to the bone.
Once
by flaring torchlight
in a cavern in the Dordogne
they blazed him out in ochre
burnt red beside aurochs and mammoth;
one of the gods of the place.
VELVET CRIMINAL
By Hilary Vance
Her silhouette ponders for a
moment.
Lightening splash, silk spray,
fast flash of rainbow scales.
She flips and turns, paws printing
the stones, smoothes the air with a
tail-twitch. Fish flaps, ripples reside.
Summery breezes lead to the fields.
Soft eyes wait.
Suddenly she springs. Many times,
struggles and shakes.
The last to return, through
the open window, velvet,
golden-eyed, purrs under a
stroking hand and curls into a
tight ball. Sleeps into oblivion.
Guiltless, always forgiven.
earth love, PO Box 11219, Paisley, PA1 2WH
Please remember to include SAE when submitting poems.