Free Verse Photo Competition – National Poetry Month, 2009


This photo by Flickr member ebrisson is one of the many submitted to the Free Verse Project, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.

April is National Poetry Month – and to play off of the new 2009 National Poetry Month Poster design, the Free Verse Project encourages people to take photographs of their favorite lines of poetry, and submit them to the Free Verse Flickr Pool. More info on the contest and how to submit here.


This photo, taken by the last passenger pigeon, features the final lines to Mary Oliver’s The Summer Day. I had never read that poem before, and really am quite taken by it.

All in all, the project itself is also a bit of a contest. All participants are eligible to win a free poetry anthology, and a commemorative bit a jewelry that’s been commissioned.

To me, the prizes are a bit lame, honestly. But I think the project itself is a pretty stellar idea. Browsing through the entries and participants, I have to say… I didn’t see a ton of stuff that impressed me.

There were several good photos, but also a lot of just random graffiti and pictures of quotations on greeting cards. That sort of thing.

To all my friends who have cameras – I’ve seen your work, and I’ve seen the photos you guys have on Flickr. You guys can do WAY better than some of the entries I’ve seen so far. I’m sure you can come up with better shots (and more creative ones to boot).

I encourage everyone to look through the project details, and to browse around the ever-growing Free Verse Flickr Pool. It’s a pretty cool project, and a neat way to celebrate the upcoming National Poetry Month. The deadline is April 15th, so break out those cameras!

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