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What is a poem? Really…what is a poem? Is it a simple retelling of a personal experience, or is it something greater, something bigger than its creator?

The poem is the language of the world, the greatest mode of literary transport known to humankind. It can do more than prose, in less space. A poem can provide solace for the lonely; a hearth for the lost; a voice for the disenfranchised; balm for the tired mind. It can silence the cynic, or seed crops for the next generation of literary dissidents to harvest. A great poem is resonant, as potent 100 years later as it was at the time of writing. It doesn’t have anything more than it needs to make its point, or its presence felt. It is there in the rites of passage: amongst the first rhythms heard in the nursery; amongst the vows of marriage; furnishing the exit with recital at a funeral.

Poets have been called the “technicians of the sacred”. In essence, they are the reeds through which the greater wind of the universal is blown. This is to say that the poet is not the most important part of the making of a poem. It is the sacred: it is always the sacred. The poem is greater than the creator. And it is exactly this type of poetry, the type that is imbued with the sacred, the universal, that the winner of this competition should be aimed at writing. Poetry that is bold in making us remember who we are; poetry that will confront the disorders of our age with a fearless glare; poetry for the common soul - the puncher of clocks; the tiller of soils; the makers of homes - those whose hands are dirty with the day.

At the end of this competition, the accomplished mission is to to slap a poem down on a table and say: “This is a memorable piece of work. This is a megaphone from this moment to be pointed at the future.”

Of the 400 entrants to this competition do you have what it takes to point that megaphone, to be the voice of The Multiple Poegam 3:0: Reloaded? Well, do you?

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