#5: First Memory

Open from April 1 to June 1, 2021. Accepted poems were published from May 1 through July 1, 2021.

ASSIGNMENT PURPOSE

The purpose of this assignment is to write a poem that effectively captures for readers the poet’s earliest memory and its significance.

Read the poems here.

FORMAL INTERESTS

We are specifically interested in poems that demonstrate careful attention to the elements of shape, line, music, comparison, and balance, and especially how those choices contribute to the cooperative harmony of form and emotion in the poem. Poems that do not meet these interests may be declined. For more on this perspective, see the five formal causes of beauty in poetry.

Additionally, we encourage you to consider new choices you might take in poetic form as it pertains to shape, line length, enjambment, stanza, and repetition, as well as the traditional closed-form patterns of haiku, villanelle, ballad, sonnet, blank verse, and pantoum.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Poetry submissions should be saved in Microsoft Word document format and composed in Times New Roman, 12 point font. They should be attached to an email to editor@texaspoetryassignment.org and include within the body of the email a brief cover letter and a 50-word biography.

EXTRA CREDIT

We are also interested in receiving poems accompanied by brief audio or video recordings of the sonnet by the author. Audio or video files should be saved in or converted to MP4 format and attached to the submission email.

ACCEPTANCE AND PUBLICATION

This call was open from April 1 to June 1, 2021. Accepted poems were published from May 1 through July 1, 2021.

READING

Texas Poetry Assignment will also host a reading of selected poems from this assignment. Date and time to be announced.

PUBLICATION RIGHTS

Writers will retain all rights to their work published on this site.