Guidelines

Guidelines: (1) Include your name, the title of your original poem, and a brief comment about yourself; (2) Poems may be in any language (please include an English translation); (3) Poems may not violate Nicolet's Social Media Guidelines; (4) Original poems may be submitted anonymously; (5) Submit poems to Ocie Kilgus (okilgus@nicoletcollege.edu). Students who submit original poems are eligible for the Best Original Poem contest. The student with the best poem will be awarded the Ron Parkinson Poetry Matters Student Scholarship Award in the amount of $300. The community member with the best poem will receive dinner for two at Church Street Inn, Hazelhurst. Upon the closing of the Poetry Project, a faculty committee will select the winning poems. The winners of the contest will be recognized at Nicolet College's Award Ceremonies on May 10.

Friday, April 8, 2016

April 8, 2016

“Words can be Powerful”
By Samantha R. Siefert

Words can be menacing, evil through and through,
but words can be meaningful, wonderful, and true.
Words can be corrupt, and they can be dark,
but words can be beautiful like the song of a lark.

Bad is a threat, an insult, and blasphemy.
Worse is a cuss, a curse, and profanity.
Good is a hymn, a poem, a young dove’s cry.
Better is a song, a psalm, a lullaby.

Words can be ugly, weak, and rotten.
Those words are best ignored and forgotten,
But words can be beautiful, powerful, and strong.
Those words will be remembered all your life long.

Words can be mighty, and they can be great,
but not when said with malice and hate.
And so a word to the wise.
In with the good and out with the lies.

 Samantha attends Rhinelander High School and is in the ninth grade.

 * * * * * * * * * *

 "Should Trouble Cross This Path"
By Matt Parker

 Should Trouble cross this path
and upon arrival take me,
Then I laugh, for I’ve escaped that devil
so long as I have
Should Fortune turn her back
while I walk a plank no man could make me
Then I smile for having known her
so long as I have

 Should Trouble cross this path
then let ye rest at ease
For I promise he will not be
at work tomorrow
Should Death be struck with hunger
that naught but I could appease
then feast with me
and leave that starving bastard alone in sorrow

 Through years of others’ cries run I
And long I’ve yearned for sadness
like a Cape Cod painter exploring the depths of gray
Deluded by song in times of joy 
And rock-a-byed into madness
But bearing a smile though we know the path does fade away

 And so should I cross paths with Trouble
and I’ve lost what I promise was a mighty struggle,
Then carry me corp’rally home
For I’ll have to bid goodbye
And feel not for me sorrow;
Time is not a gift, but borrowed
So long I’ve roamed my terrestrial home
And I smile for in the same I shall peacefully lie

 "About the poem: Suffering is uniquely for the living. Boredom is for the living. Guilt is for the mournful to imagine upon Death. Hi, there.

 About the writer: Matt Parker is a man person human of many a couple talents, but none greater than his ability to deftly make terrible, devastating, and very consequential decisions. The only people who know his real name are dead or otherwise non-existent. Matt lives in a modestly-furnished cavern just outside of Rhinelander where he enjoys listening to old jazz records, playing one-man chess (a game which he himself devised [out of necessity] and yet has never quite gotten the hang of), and speaking in non-sequiturs. He sincerely hopes that it is a series of good choices that have led you to this poem. Either way, he appreciates your commiseration."

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