Favorite Poem Project
Giving Voice to the Dutchess County Audience for Poetry

Click here to Print the form
Based on the Favorite Poem Project undertaken by Robert Pinsky as Poet Laureate of the United States and conducted at Boston University. Department of English and Humanities

Dutchess Community College is calling on Dutchess County residents of all ages to participate in the Favorite Poem Project by sending us a copy of your favorite poem and a brief statement of why it is significant to you. The program will culminate with a public reading of favorite poems at the DCC main campus in spring of 2006. Dutchess County residents are invited to submit their favorite poems, along with their reasons for choosing them, by December 15, 2005.

This project is dedicated to celebrating poetry’s vigorous presence in the lives of Dutchess County residents’ and to promoting that presence.

Robert Pinsky has said that “Poetry is a vocal art meant to be read aloud. When people are asked to read aloud and talk about poems they love, something remarkable happens—a discernable change in their faces and voices that demonstrates the depth of their connection to the poems. Many people find particular poems have profound, personal meaning. Poetry has a vigorous presence in American life.” The Poetry Project at DCC seeks to document that presence, giving voice to the American audience for poetry here in Dutchess County. Click here for Project Requirements.

All submissions must include the submitter’s name, address, telephone number; the poem itself with a reference to the poet and, if possible, the date of the poem; and the person's explanation of why she or he is moved emotionally and/or stimulated intellectually by the poem.Click here to Print the form

Project requirements.
• The submissions must come from Dutchess County residents
• Poems submitted must NOT be poems written the submitters, their relatives, or their friends.
• Poems must be ones the submitters have read, perhaps many times, and to which they feel a personal attachment.
• Poems may be from the great history of American poetry, from British poetry, from other English-speaking poetical traditions, or poems written in another language accompanied with an English translation.

Poem and reader selection will be based upon the quality of the poem and its significance to the submitter’s life. The public reading will be recorded, and the poems along with the readers’ statements will be collected. The poems and the statements may also be published in a book.

For more information, contact DCC Associate Professor of English John Desmond at (845) 431-8434, or email him desmond@sunydutchess.edu.

Click here to read the pdf format

NEWS & EVENTS | Dutchess Community College HOME

Comments and questions about this page can be directed to the DCCF/Alumni Office.