No Place for Me

I entered a New Hampshire poetry contest and would have been notified by today if I had placed. I thought I had a shot at winning because, besides thinking the poem was good, there were no prizes for winning which, to me, meant that there wouldn’t be as much competition. I mean, who would submit a potentially award-winning poem to a no-award contest? Who other than me, I mean.

Among other details, the instructions for submitting an entry indicated that poets should send two copies of the poem – one including one’s name, address, telephone number and email, and the second one including no identifying information.

The rules indicated that there would be 3 winners in the adult category – First, Second and Third – and that there would be one winner for the High School, Middle School and Elementary School categories.

Unless there was a secret code I failed to uncover, nowhere did the instructions advise where to indicate whether one fell into the adult category or student category.

No need to tell you that, evidently, my poem did not hold nonexistent-award-winning merit even if I had been an elementary, middle, or high school student-poet – which answers my earlier question as to who would submit a potentially award-winning poem to a no-award contest: Apparently, at least 6 other people.