Poem of the Week/"Wake Up to Poetry" Contest

 

The poem N, from Opera Et Cetera by Ciaran Carson, implores the reader to "Wake up" to listen to the poem. Wake Forest University Press is also also asking you to wake up, but we want to listen to your poetry. We are now taking submissions to the Wake Up to Poetry contest! This event is in celebration of National Poetry Month (April). Three winners will be chosen and there are fabulous prizes including: cash, books, and publication in the campus magazine 3 to 4 ounces. It is open to all students and poems should be emailed to wfupress.wfu.edu by March 6th.

Wake up Wake Forest students and dazzle us with your verse!

And without further ado...

N

 

I am a dash or a void. It's up to you to make me up.

    Wake up,

You, the reader! I have some tales to tell you, and

    the night is but a pup.

 

I was Nemo once, a kind of Prospero.  When I imbibed

     a bit of Bob,

My Nameless One became His Nibs, an eponymous

     proper Nabob.

 

Of course, my nadirs have been various: Electric Ray

    the Numbfish,

For example. He was really nesh. Those jokes about

    the actress and the Bish?

 

Still, I am a nebula: my lives illuminate their

    dazzling firmament;

Innumerable stars gaze down at you, as if  they really

     meant.

 

You mean you smoked a bit of dope? The names of

    things have gone all AWOL?

Listen to me. Nemo is not a nobody. And Nautilus

    is not a narwhal.