Searching for poet laureate

The search is on for Massachusetts senior poet laureate. Entries are now being accepted for regional winners in the 18th annual National Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition. This competition is for American poets age 50 and older. The local title that will be competed for is called Massachusetts Senior Poet Laureate. The deadline for submissions to this contest is June 30. Winning poems of state senior poets laureate will be named in July, following which they will advance to final rounds of competition from which the winner of $500 and the 2010 National Senior Poet Laureate title will be announced around Sept. 1. Cora M. Ott of Chelsea won the 2009 Massachusetts Senior Poet Laureate Award with her poem "The Old Maid's Complaint." The winner of the 2009 National Senior Poet Laureate Award was Patricia Frolander, 66, a rancher from Sundance, Wyo. Co-sponsors Vera-Jane Goodin Schultz and Wanda Sue Parrott founded the contest, which is administered by Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation, in 1993. The 2009 winners can be seen in Golden Words Anthology, along with rules for the 2010 Senior Poets Laureate Contest, at www.amykitchenerfdn.org