Prize in Poetry Competition Puts Words in Motion

Winners' Verses to Be Posted in Metrobuses

Calling all poets.

Arlington County is soliciting poetry for Moving Words, an annual competition that showcases poems from people who live, work or attend school in the county. Winning submissions will be displayed inside 425 Metrobuses in Northern Virginia.

"It's an opportunity to publish and promote poetry in Arlington," said Kathy Glennon, an arts program specialist with the county's Cultural Affairs Division who coordinates the poetry competition. "It's one of the ways we can support poets in Arlington. And it's also a way to brighten the day of commuters.

"It reaches such a wide audience of people that I think would be hard to reach in any other medium," Glennon said. "It could reach avid poetry readers, maybe people who traditionally don't think they like poetry."

Poems are limited to 10 lines, and the deadline for entries is Jan. 18. Entrants must be at least 18; a separate contest is held for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Poets can submit up to five works.

Jurors will select six winners, and the poets will be notified the first week of March. Winners receive a $100 honorarium. The poems will be on display from April, which is National Poetry Month, through September.

Last year, 50 poets submitted 135 poems for consideration in the adult contest. Jacqueline Jules, a librarian at Timber Lane Elementary School in Falls Church, and a children's author and poet, has won twice.

"I think it's a wonderful way to share poetry," said Jules, 51, who won the 1999 inaugural contest and again last year. "Certainly when you're riding on a bus and you're commuting back and forth, to share literature rather than just advertisements is a great way to promote the arts and to promote thought.

"The idea that people, when they're going back and forth to work, particularly when they're going home and they're tired, that your lines and your words would cheer somebody up, or help somebody think in a new direction, is inspiring and gratifying," she said.

Jules wrote last year's winner, "Chocolate on the Wedding Dress," on the way home from her son's wedding in November 2006.

"What I like about the contest is, not only is it a way for poets to have their work disseminated among the public, but it's also nice that the public can see poetry in a public place and to see poetry that has something to do with their daily lives," said Miles David Moore, an Alexandria resident and two-time winner, whose "Lilacs" was selected last year. "Not something that's wrapped up in a classroom, but something that actually discusses their own concerns."

Although the program is largely the work of Cultural Affairs Division, it is sponsored by the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services, with assistance from Metro. Arlington County Commuter Services pays for printing the posters with about $10,000 set aside annually from the marketing budget, said Chris Hamilton, chief of Commuter Services.