Contests

New Poetry Contest: Birds

This Cricket is aflutter with birds—musical starlings, pretty peacocks, acrobatic hummingbirds, and perky pigeons. Although our bugs avoid birds when they can, Tater convinced everybuggy that, from a scientific point of view, birds are really smart and interesting, and wonderfully adapted to environments from the tropics to Antarctica. So, for this month’s contest, everybuggy wants to see your best poem about a bird or birds. Tater even suggested that Ugly could be guest judge! (Does spelling count?)

Perhaps you will be inspired by the birds you see flitting about your backyard this spring, or by the birdsongs and calls you hear early in the morning. Maybe your verse will capture what it is like to be a bird in flight, or to watch a migrating flock fly overhead. You might focus on a proud eagle diving on its prey, or on how birds build their nests and care for their young, or on birds that live in harsh or unusual climates. You might even write about birds of legend and lore, or species that are now extinct.

Whether your poem is about your pet parakeet, a medieval hunting falcon, or a parrot that talks too much, everybuggy will be cowering beneath the Cricket Country mailbox, waiting for Judge Ugly to arrive in a flap and rip open your best poem—of 24 lines or less, please—about a bird or birds. Awkiee grawkee furst priz!

  • (Show Rules)
    Here are the only rules: (Hide Rules)

    1. Your contest entry must be your very own original work. Ideas and words should not be copied.

    2. Your entry must be signed by your parent or guardian, stating that it is your own work, that no help was given, and that Cricket has permission to publish it in the magazine and on our website. 

    3. Be sure to include your name, age, and full address on your entry.

    4. Only one entry per person, please.

    5. If you want your work returned, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for each entry.

    6. Your entry must be received by May 25, 2017.

    7. Send entries to Cricket League, P.O. Box 300, Peru, IL 61354. (No faxes or email submissions, please!)

    8. We will publish winning entries in the October 2018 issue and on the Cricket website.