The Raw Poetry Contest

People usually launch contests, awards and other such things of their own on a special occasion- like their blog’s or their own birthday. But I, like Lewis Carroll, am going to do so on my unbirthday instead. After all, you have 364 unbirthdays and only one birthday, like he so insightfully said.

You don’t need to be Sherlock to know that it is the Raw Poetry Contest I’m launching today.

But what is this Raw Poetry Contest thingamajig?

Good question. It is a contest on poetry that is raw.

Well, thank you, Captain Obvious.

Excellent point put forward by me-in-italics.

See, Raw Poetry is a concept I like to think I came up with when I wrote my last poem. Poetry is usually beautiful, which conveys something in a very polished and presentable manner, employing a host of literary devices. And don’t get me wrong- I love that traditional poetry. Why won’t I? If you’ve been sticking around here for a while, you know that I myself write it.

As much as traditional poetry is wonderful, though, I think it’s time to change things up a little bit. That’s where raw poetry comes in. It’s the very antithesis of traditional poetry. Raw poetry is rebellious, crass, in-your-face stuff which makes you uncomfortable. It gives you something without any coverings, in its rawest form. It makes you shift in your chair and want to call out for good ol’ traditional poetry, who has already hidden her face in shame like the grandma who sees photos of bikini models in newspapers and goes ‘what-has-this-world-come-to’.

Bear in mind, though, that neither is traditional poetry the grandma and nor is raw poetry the bikini model. It is only the embarrassment that traditional poetry feels that I’m drawing that parallel to.

If you want a clear personified picture, here’s one:

You can probably guess who’s who. If you want a sample, you may read Teenage Bathroom Stalls.

So yeah, that’s what this is all about. I’m inviting all of you to participate in this Raw Poetry Contest. Since this is rule-breaking poetry, there aren’t many rules but do keep in mind the few there are:

1. Try not to write a ballad- keep your poetry up to 1000 words long. It’s not a strict word limit, and you won’t be disqualified if you use 50-60 words more, but please do not stretch it up to 1200 or something.
2. As much as I hate deadlines, I’ll have to keep one. Submit your poem by 21st June 2019, 11:59 P.M. Indian Standard Time.
3. You can submit a minimum of one and a maximum of three poems.
4. It’s Raw Poetry, so cuss words are allowed but do remember that raw poetry is not just regular poetry with a ‘fuck’ squeezed into every line.

The contest is open to everyone, whether they’re a blogger or not. So, bloggers, do tell your non-blogger poet friends to participate.

You can submit your poem by writing it in the comments down below, by publishing a separate post, or by filling out this form– it’s up to you. Just remember to link back to this post if you publish a separate post so that I can know you’ve participated. You may or may not nominate other people when you participate- again up to you.

We’ll have a winner, a runner-up, and a second runner-up. The judgment for both blogger and non-blogger entries will be done together. Apart from me, there’ll be two judges to prevent any bias in the judgment. They’re two good friends of mine- Sagnik Sarkar and Ayushi Sood- who consider themselves unqualified to be judges but are actually wonderful critics.

Do participate, and happy writing to you!