Take off your bonnet, write a damn sonnet!

Last year’s Sonnet-Off was a smashing success, and this year, we want to build on that success to make it not just smashing but actually pulverizing, grinding whatever it is I’m talking about down to a fine powder.  Your participation is earnestly requested!

There are two components to this contest:

1. Write a sonnet and submit it (by Email, or anonymous comment on this post) by 11:59pm on Friday, April 30th.  Two guidelines: a) sonnets must follow an established classical structure of your choosing, and b) sonnets are to be written on the theme of “The Real Thing.” You may enter as often as you like, but sonnets must be original.
2. Come back on Saturday, May 1st to read the entrants and vote for your favourite. They will be posted anonymously until voting is done, and poetship can be withheld indefinitely at the poet’s request. Voting for your own sonnet is not prohibited but will be seen as exceedingly tacky.

Feel free to take part in one, or the other, or both.  First prize is a DVD box set of Finnish films to gross over $200 million in Canada.  My personal tip on finding inspiration?  Don’t write it at a computer.  Take a pen and paper somewhere stimulating and type it out only when it’s done.

Let the sonneting begin!