InterBoard Poetry Competition Poems of the Year

We are still awaiting notice of the June IBPC winners chosen by Patricia Smith, and of course the July winners chosen by Tony Barnstone won’t be announced until after the end of the month — but in the meantime we have word from judge Kelly Cherry, who was asked to choose the IBPC Poem of the Year from among all the poems that were awarded first, second, or third place from April 2007 through March 2008. Hurrahs for our Forum poet Guy Kettelhack, whose poem “Bird Painter” received honorable mention in this annual best-of-the-best competition! We’ve added Kelly Cherry’s commentary to the winning poems:

• First Place: “Bad Weather,” by Dale McLain
• Second Place: “A Second Look at Creation,” by Sergio Lima Facchini
• Third Place: “The Man Next Door According to His Pockets,” by Adam Elgar
• Honorable Mention: “Bird Painter,” by Guy Kettelhack
• Honorable Mention: “Spring Dance,” by Brenda Levy Tate
• Honorable Mention: “Carol for the Brokenhearted,” by Brenda Levy Tate

The forum representatives and IBPC editors are currently discussing the possibility of publishing an anthology of IBPC winners — which is why we require that all poems entered in the monthly competition from our Forum be accompanied by the poets’ email addresses, so that the IBPC editors can contact you if your poem is chosen for publication. As the publication plans progress, we’ll post the details in our Poetry Forum.

In the meantime, please remember it’s up to you to keep the IBPC nominations coming! Whenever you see a great poem posted on our Forum, no matter where it is, come on over to the InterBoard Poetry Competition folder and nominate it! And be sure to notify the poet whose work you are putting forward, so that he or she can post the required permission and information before Poetry Guide Margy Snyder selects next month’s entries.

Related resources:
About the IBPC
Requirements for IBPC nominees
Anthology of the monthly IBPC winning poems
Archive of poems entered in the IBPC from our Poetry Forum
July - September judge, Tony Barnstone