‘Save the Earth’ announces its 2014 poetry contest

John Felstiner, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University and Charles Weeden, The Weeden Foundation are delighted to announce the 2014 ‘Save the Earth’ Poetry Contest. Over the past several years, this contest has grown as more young adults want to share their imagination and sensitivity as they first truly see our natural, endangered world. The Save the Earth Poetry Contest is offered annually for 11th and 12th grade students to encourage a connection with the natural world through poetry. Contestants are asked to submit an original poem that evokes humankind’s awareness of the natural world and nature as such. The contest is based on John Felstiner’s book, ‘Can Poetry Save the Earth? : A Field Guide to Nature Poems’. Contest winners receive prize money and have their poems displayed on contest website at http://www.savetheearthpoems.com. “These poems possess a freshness and insight which is unique in modern poetry,” says Charles Weeden, Contest Director. “There are maybe 5-10 poems each year from which I get a rush as I had when I first read John Muir’s ‘My First Summer in the Sierra’ or Gary Snyder’s ‘Riprap.’ “We also can’t say enough about the English teachers in our high schools,” furthers Mr. Weeden. “Many do the incredible: Teach our kids how to express the subtleties of their thoughts and emotions. Can there be a harder job in this too-technical, tweeted world?” The Weeden Foundation and John Felstiner, author and Professor Emeritus, Standford University offer this annual contest to engage students to recognize and respond to their footprint in the natural world. What becomes a global response will start with an individual. Source: PRWEB