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Prime 53 Summer Challenge

ChrisForrestIf you love rules and regulations, following forms and formulas to make something work, gnashing your teeth and pulling out your hair to meet perfection – and you love poetry – then you’re going to love this free Prime 53 Summer Challenge Poetry Contest

Press 53 Poetry Editor Christopher Forrest [pictured] and Publisher and Editor in Chief Kevin Morgan Watson devised a new poetic form: the Prime 53 poem.

ChrisForrestIf you love rules and regulations, following forms and formulas to make something work, gnashing your teeth and pulling out your hair to meet perfection – and you love poetry – then you’re going to love this free Prime 53 Summer Challenge Poetry Contest

Press 53 Poetry Editor Christopher Forrest [pictured] and Publisher and Editor in Chief Kevin Morgan Watson devised a new poetic form: the Prime 53 poem.

The challenge is to write a Prime 53 poem and submit it by September 23, 2019. The top three poems will be published in Issue 163 of Prime Number Magazine on October 1, 2019. The winners will receive a free paperback book of their choice from Press 53 or one free seminar at the High Road Festival of Poetry and Short Fiction, March 28, 2020, in Winston-Salem, NC.

Enticed? Great, now here’s the teeth gnashing and hair pulling part. Your poem must adhere to the following rules:

  • Total syllable count of 53
  • Eleven total lines
  • First three stanzas are three lines each with a 7 / 5 / 3 syllable count
  • Final stanza must be two lines with a 5 / 3 syllable count, for a total syllable count of 53
  • Rhyme scheme (slant/soft rhymes are fine) aba cdc efe gg

The total line count is a prime number (11), the syllable count in each line is a prime number (7 / 5 / 3) with each lines of the last two-line stanza a prime number (5 / 3), and the poem’s total syllable count is a prime number (53).

For additional information, including a sample poem, visit the Prime 53 Summer Challenge website.

I’m in! How about you?

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