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.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

April 21, 2016

“Once a King”
By Michael Pirus

As the Princess plays, forever my heart grows bigger!
What is this love, sweeter than the purest of sugar?

At night we talk about the things that lie ahead.
Every night I give her kisses just before she runs off to bed.

There once was a time when I could slay the biggest of her beasts.
Now that I have grown older, I feel I am in less and less of her needs.

As I watch my princess grow, I know that she will someday leave.
I will watch her venture out on her own to fulfill her hopes and dreams.

She now knows the love of a prince that she seems to need.
I think my heart is broken; yes, this is indeed.

I just miss the times when she would sit upon my knee.
I just miss the times when I once felt like I was the king.

“I am currently in my second semester of a two-year business degree. I wrote this poem for my daughter Britney."

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“Eighty-One”
By Tina Kolberg Lee

Grandma was eighty-one when she died.
Everyone said she had lived a nice long life.
I thought that too.

What thirty years will do.

My dad was eighty-one when he died.
I think now, it wasn't his time to go.
even though he had lived a nice long life,
not long enough for me.
Now eighty-one seems young to me.

I will have to wait now
to see what another thirty years will do.