What special beauty have you found in the ordinary?
Toolbox Gallery, in partnership with the Lake Oswego Public Library, invites adults of all experience levels to submit an original poem inspired by this year’s theme: Small Wonders.
We want to know how something seemingly unremarkable and easily overlooked moved you–a stranger’s smile perhaps, or the stillness of a Tuesday morning, a home-cooked meal, a childhood toy, or the way flowers grow through cracks in the sidewalk.
Selected poems will be featured in a pop-up exhibition at Toolbox November 2-8, in conjunction with the Portland Book Festival. This exhibition will welcome people of all ages to enjoy and engage with poetry through a variety of events and a participatory art experience.
Eligibility
Any adult (18+) living in the Portland metro area is welcome to submit work for consideration.
Content Guidelines
All submissions should be responsive to the theme “Small Wonders.” Poems can be written in any form, and all skill levels are welcome, including beginners!
Please limit your submission to one original and unpublished poem, not to exceed one page. For legibility and accessibility purposes, please use 14pt Times New Roman typeface and double space your work. Every effort will be made to preserve line breaks, stanza structure, capitalization, and punctuation exactly as submitted. If your poem relies on a specific visual or typographic form as part of its meaning, please note this with your submission so that we can discuss display options. Do not include your name or any other identifying information, biographical details, links, or images.
Submissions should be suitable for a general audience and be created exclusively by humans–no AI-generated work, please.
Submission Guidelines
All poems must be received electronically by September 30. To submit your form, please use the webform at https://www.toolboxart.org/poetry-call-for-artists-1. Only .doc and .docx file formats will be accepted. Anonymous submissions are welcome. Please proofread your work before submitting!
Review & Selection
All poems will be reviewed without author identification by a selection panel during the first week of October.
Invitations will be extended to a limited number of poets by October 10 to showcase their poems in a pop-up exhibition at the Toolbox Gallery between November 2-8. Authors of selected works will be invited to events during the pop-up, including a reception on Friday, November 6, and will be given the opportunity to read their work.
Questions? Please email us at jennifer@toolboxart.org with the subject line “Poetry”