2010 Charles Prize for Poetry

This blog risks being overcome by negativity, drowning in The Acerbic (that Northern Sea).

Poetry has saved us before, no doubt it can ably throw a line over the bow (Though would it not make more sense that we'd be now floating, now drowning in the rear, behind, off the stern?.  Who would fall from the bow, how and why?).

If I continue to worry about where I am in relation to my salvation, I'll be lucky if I am even deemed somewhere overboard, and worth rescuing.

Thank goodness for people of clarity, and good humor.  Also, there's an expanse, a general bigness, in these generous people.  There's room enough.

Such is Doctor Charles, Physician Writer, Healer.  I've been reading the entries to a poetry competition he's sponsoring, and enjoying them very much.  They are affirmative and rich, spare and true.

Ah, but there is not, as yet, a villanelle.

Why don't you enter?  Here is what he has to say about the contest -- take a moment and visit his blog, take the measure of the place, and then consider trusting him and his readership with a poetic creation that treats "health, science, or medicine."

Fred and I will stick to what we do best:  Interpretive Dance (As Performed In The Moat).  Good luck and happy reading over at The Examining Room of Dr. Charles.

[I can already feel the snark begin to calm ~ that morsel of marine excrement, Ochoa, sink into watery oblivion ~ that Reuben-oid Scamster ride the swell, only to drift, away.]

Announcing the first annual 2010 Charles Prize for Poetry. Bold and pretentious name aside, the award will be given to the writer who submits for consideration the most outstanding poem within the context of health, science, or medicine.


Open to everyone (patients, doctors, science people, nurses, students, etc.). 1 or 2 entries per person.


Poems should be related to experiencing, practicing, or reflecting upon a medical, scientific, or health-related matter.


The winner will be selected by a panel of three judges, including me. These other judges may or may not be Nobel Laureates, you never know, but all appreciate poetry. I may ask for your permission to post a copy of your poem on this blog as we go, with or without attribution as you wish.


Is such an eponymous contest grandiose? Yes. Does the limited poetry I’ve written carry the gravitas needed to make me an authority on the subject? No way.


But should your poem be selected as the winner, you shall receive a plaque, an award of $500, and a tasty cherry tomato from my garden. Seriously. At least one person has written that winning the cherry tomato is more important to her than all the gold in the world. I’m sorry that my budget is not higher, but I thought I could swing $500 without enlisting sponsorship. Who needs an iPhone anyway?


Update – with so many great poems in so far, I think I’ll award a few surprise prizes for honorable mentions


So have fun, find inspiration, and send your entry to:


drcharles.examining *at* gmail.com


Contest closes August 31st.

PHOTO CREDIT: NASA, Stormy Weather in the North Sea, with Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, featured.

Stormy weather over the North Sea is not uncommon, and so the powerful winds that swept over the European ocean basin on October 27, 2006, were not extraordinary. Winds gusting to hurricane force raged over the sea for several hours, and by the time that the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over at 1:00 p.m. local time, the sea had turned a foamy, white-flecked green off the shore of Denmark. Westerly winds were driving waves into shore, creating a fringe of white where waves crashed onto the beach. In the image, glimmers of white glint in the murky waters offshore where waves break over the shallow continental shelf. The violent sea churned up clouds of sediment, giving the water the brown and green color seen here. Clearer, deep water farther north is nearly black, by contrast.