Everyone’s a Winner!… Calvin Trillin

The Progressive Poet
 A political poetry contest

Let your inner political bard out!

Think you have what it takes to be Washington’s State’s first political poet laureate? Well bring on the verse!

Fuse will accept entries in the The Progressive Poet contest through Jan. 30, 2009.

The rules are easy.

1) Write your poem, haiku, ode or limerick–focused on any aspect of Washington State politics, elections, or government–using the form here.

2) Submit by sending your entry to cheryl@fusewashington.org

3) Look online at www.fusewashington.org on Feb. 1 to see the winning entry (and our favorite runners up).
GRAND PRIZE:

Two seats at Words & Wine with author/satirist Calvin Trillin.

Our poet winner will receive two tickets ($100 value) to the Feb. 2, 2009 Words & Wine Seattle’s most intimate and intelligent author conversation and book-signing event, Words & Wine is presented by the Pan Pacific Hotel, Kim Ricketts Book Events and host Warren Etheredge of The Warren Report.

Click here to see the full line-up for Words & Wine 2009.

The winner takes home an autographed copy of the topic of the conversation, Trillin’s new book Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme

In classic Trillin style, the author takes on all of the “characters” of the last Presidential election, penning songs and poems that poke fun at every single one of them.

John Edwards inspires a country music song: “Yes, I Know He’s a Millworker’s Son, but There’s Hollywood in That Hair”; Hilary Clinton‘s campaign a rhyming couplet: “Some pundits wrote that Hil’s Campaign might fare/ a little better if Bill wasn’t there”; and Sarah Palin joins the chorus with her version of a Streisand standard: “On a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok”. Trillin encapsulates in verse every vainglorious speech, gaffe, blatant misstatement or pandering gesture of all of those candidates who felt they could ably guide the free world.

An, award-winning journalist, memoirist and novelist Trillin has written on food, sports, family, politics and life in New York City in more than 30 books and as NPR “doggerel poet” since 1990 has entertained listeners across the globe with his humorous verse about the politics of the day.

Excerpt from Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme

On a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok
 (The Barbra Streisand standard as sung by Sarah Palin)

On a clear day
I see Vladivostok,
So I know world affairs.
Don’t say, “No way.”
Though I know elites mock,
It’s osmosis that does it — well, that and our prayers.
And Joe Biden sees New Jersey from his shore.
And that’s just a state. That doesn’t rate. It’s me who knows the score.
On a clear day,
On a clear day,
I see Vladivostok . . .
And Novosibirsk . . .
And Krasnoyarsk . . .
And Novokuznetsk . . .
And Omsk . . .
And Tomsk . . .
And more!