Home
Site Write
Poets Laureate
ALAMEDA ISLAND POETS
Newsbeat
POETS DINNER
Events
BOOKSTORE

Fame In Alameda

POETS DINNER

Annual Art Event Continually Ongoing Longer Than Hollywood Academy Awards

86th Annual Poets' Dinner/Contest
No entry fee -- Open to All Ages -- Presence Required to Claim Awards
Theme: "Balance" -- Guest Speaker: Molly Fisk
Contest Deadline: January 24, 2012 / Lunch: March 24, 2012 - Francesco's Restaurant, Oakland, CA
 

2009 Poets Dinner
poetsdinner.jpg

Alameda Island Poets Winners of 2008 Annual Poets Dinner Contest
 
strange symbols
 
I put notes on walls
pasted to old boards
a door, here or there
lords of various names
streaming cosmic webs
to create, to believe in
songs from golden birds
gotten lost, cornered
caught within their flight

– Richard Angilly
 
 
Richard is a member of the Alameda Island Poets Chapter of CFCP Inc.  Four other  members of  ALAMEDA ISLAND POETS CHAPTER were also Award Winners AT THE POETS DINNER:
Debbie Garcia, Mary Rudge, Claire J. Baker and Peter Sandholdt.

RUSTIC RITUAL
(in Santa Rosa, California)
 
Here at a peaceful day-lily farm and ranch
tucked below green hillsides topped with pines,
the mourning doves -- a shy and cozy cluster
forever caged -- are cooing up the sun.
 
Wakened by their velvet language, we listen...
Then suddenly no doves, no after-notes
nor resonating choir -- rippled chuckles
silent...Then drawn to some mysterious force
the murmurs rise anew in poignant chords --
such primal promptings bound to lift the sun;
babbling concern, they coax the golden eagle
until the fledgling flies on freshened wings.
 
All night the lilies of the day have grown
in condensation sipped by thirsty stars,
color deepened to golden harvest moons --
a simple scene, and yet complex as God.
 
After breakfast we will coo to doves,
will whisper, want to set them free as air
to roost among the pine trees, forage grasses
for what doves most require beyond their cages.
 
(c) Claire J. Baker
Nature - 2nd H.M. Poets Dinner 2008
 
Written in Blank Verse

The Poets Dinner is an annual poetic event, taking place in various, alternating San Francisco Bay Area Communities. 
On her death bed, Ina Coolbrith, first Oakland librarian and first California Poet Laureate, bade her circle of poets and friends continue the poetic tradition on hills and valleys of the golden state. 
Shortly thereafter the first Poets Dinner took place.  The gathering has been reoccurring annually longer than Hollywood's Academy Awards.

Annual Poets Dinner

Deadline January 24, 2012.

86th ANNUAL POETS’ DINNER/CONTEST – Awards at Francesco’s Restaurant  Open to all ages
WINNER MUST BE PRESENT TO CLAIM AWARDS WHEN ANNOUNCED

       Lunch: March 24, 2011 (11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

THEME: “CHANCES     GUEST SPEAKER: Mollie Frisk
 
CONTEST DEADLINE: January 24, 2012 (Postmarked before midnight)  NO CERTIFIED OR REGISTERED MAIL.
CATEGORIES (8 topics):          
BEGINNINGS & ENDINGS, LIGHT or HUMOROUS, NATURE, LOVE, SPACES & PLACES, PEOPLE,
(THEME ~~Chances ~~), POET'S CHOICE.
Poems must be original, unpublished in any “juried” way, in English, not previous prizewinner or honorable mention winner. (Grand Prize & other winning poems may be included in future anthology; others will be destroyed after 3/24/11.)
   40-line maximum, any form, any style.       

# OF ENTRIES: Three (3) per person; one (1) per category
        1. Type entry on ONE side only of 8½ x 11 white paper.
        2. Type category topic in upper right-hand corner of each page.
        3. DO NOT put your name, etc., ANYWHERE on any entered poem.
        4. Send three (3) clear copies of EACH entry (with no illustrations).
        5. AUTHOR MUST ATTEND TO CLAIM ANY AWARD.

MAIL ENTRIES TO CONTEST CHAIR: Robert Eastwood, 21 Arapaho Court, San Ramon, CA 94583

PRIZES: One Dorothy Tyrrel GRAND PRIZE - $60.00 --
To be chosen from among the first three prize winners in each category.
  For each CATEGORY: Three --- $30.00, $20.00, $15.00, plus three Honorable Mentions.
  The Ad Schuster Annual Citation for last year's Grand Prize Winner will also be presented and read.

AWARD PROCEDURE: Winning entries will be read and awards presented ONLY at this 3/19/11 lunch. On slips provided at the lunch, write your name, the title and first line of each poem submitted. Use the slip to claim  win  immediately after poem is read.
If there is NO CLAIM, prize will be awarded to the next ranked submission. Judges’ decisions are final.

NOTE: The Ina Coolbrith Circle invites all to its April meeting (4/17/11, 2 p.m.) at the Lafayette Presbyterian Church, Davies Room, 49 Knox Dr., Lafayette  All Poets Dinner winners are invited to read their prize poems.
DONATIONS: Books and monetary contributions to sustain awards may be sent to AWARDS CHAIR, Natica Angilly -
   1515 Poplar Ave., Richmond, CA 94805-1662. (Donor calls only, please): (510) 235-0361.

POETRY BOOK TABLE: Please pre-arrange sale space for your books by contacting BOOK TABLE CHAIR:
John Rowe before March 15, 2011 at (510) 527-9905
or rowepoet@yahoo.com – SPACE LIMITED.
Our 75th Anthology, Remembering, is available.

DATE, TIME, LOCATION: Saturday, March 19, 2011. 11:30 a.m. for NO-HOST cocktails --
** FRANCESCO’S, 8520 Pardee Drive, Oakland -- Airport Room ** (From I-880, take the Hegenberger Road exit toward the Airport, turn right at Pardee Drive, and right into the parking lot.)
LUNCH SERVED PROMPTLY AT NOON. – FREE PARKING
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Poets’ Dinner LUNCH ORDER
         (Enclose this form along with check & SASE)

  Tickets $29.00 (at door: $30.00 as available)

NAME___________________________________________ 

 ADDRESS __________________________________________________|

CITY __________________________________________

PHONE (     ) _____________Email:_________________
# Fresh Fillet of Red Snapper   ______      = $_________

 # Walnut Crusted Chicken Breast ______  = $________

 # Eggplant Parmegiana             _______   = $________

Tickets  $29.00 ea ________TOTAL Enclosed: $________
(Tickets at door: $30.00 as available)

General seating. FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED.
Make checks payable to POETS’ DINNER, mail with SASE and this form to:
RICHARD ANGILLY, 1515 Poplar Ave., Richmond, CA 94805-1662.

http://sites.google.com/site/bayareapoetscoalition/Home/84th-annual-poets-dinner-contest
Would you like to receive a copy of contest rules by Email?  Contact rwangil@pacbell.net

[]