Poetry for the Mind's Joy is Poet Laureate Kay Ryan's project that includes a community college poetry contest administered by the Community College Humanities Association and a lively videoconference.
Winning Contest Poems
We are happy to post on this site a sampling of the winning poems from the Community College Poetry Competition. The same poems are presented here in two formats: (1) alphabetical, by author or by college, and (2) in a page-turner, anthology format, entitled "Poetry for the Mind's Joy."
Winning poems were selected during a competition administered this spring by the Community College Humanities Association. Winners were chosen at the local level by the participating campuses. We hope this sampling will give you an idea of the literary creativity on today's community college campuses.
April 1 Celebration
On April 1, U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan anchored a one-hour videoconference from the Library of Congress to highlight Community College Poetry Day across the country.
This videoconference and the day-long campus poetry festivities were part of Ms. Ryan’s “Poetry for the Mind’s Joy” project, sponsored by the Library in collaboration with the Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) .
In the one-hour videoconference, the Laureate interacted with selected community college students revealing tips about writing poetry and aspects of her own writing process.
About the Poetry for the Mind's Joy Project
Poetry for the Mind’s Joy is a national initiative that includes a videoconference, a national celebration by community colleges, and a poetry writing contest. Winning poems from each participating campus have been chosen at the campus level and are now being considered for the online anthology to be featured on this site.
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