Poets on Ice* will return for its second year at the Downtown Dartmouth Ice Festival from January 31-February 2, 2025!
What the heck is that? I'm so glad you asked!
Basically, I ask local poets to write winter-themed poems and submit them to me via Instagram by January 27. 10 selected poems will be frozen into decorated blocks of ice, and displayed on Portland Street for the Festival. As this is a non-profit, volunteer-run, community-based initiative, there is no pay for participating writers, but if your poem doesn't melt you are welcome to keep it :)
They can be silly, serious, or sweet. Haiku, freeform, or sonnett... Whatever you like, as long as there's no hate speech or the like.
Here are some samples from last year!
Last year, I ended up freezing about twenty poems, which SPOILER ALERT: was way too many for one gal and her deep freeze! So I'm making some changes... To make things more collaborative and community-based, I encourage you to write and freeze your own poems and bring them down for display (even if you are not one of the ten selected!). I'll be releasing an instructional video on how to make your own frozen poem on my Instagram. If you are an English or Art teacher, this would be such a fun activity with your students!
So here are the ways you can participate :)
Submit a poem to be frozen (ten lucky poets from the HRM will be selected to have their poem frozen by me!)
Make your own poem on ice and bring it to the Ice Festival for display.
Come down and read all the beautiful poems and see the amazing ice sculptures at this wonderful community event!
Guidelines for submitted poems:
Poems must be in plain text (no images/pdfs) via Instagram DM (@lindseyharringtonwriter)!
Poems must fit on a 8.5x11” page at no less than 25 point font.
Poems should touch on the theme of snow, ice, and/or winter.
Winning submissions will be frozen into ice and displayed at the Downtown Dartmouth Ice Festival.
This is a family-friendly event--keep that in mind when selecting themes and language.
The contest is only open to HRM residents.
The selection of poems is at my sole discretion.
By submitting a poem, you are certifying it is your original work and that you are granting permission for it to be displayed.
Unfortunately, this is a labour of love for me, and selected poems will not receive honorarium.
To learn more about how the idea originated, read this other blog post!
*No poets are harmed in the making of poets on ice.
Comments