1 . Welcome to our annual Poetry Contest! We invite poets of all ages and experiences to show their creativity and compete for the chance to be published in our magazine. Follow these guidelines to ensure your submission meets all the necessary criteria for entry. Good luck to all participants!

Submission Dates: May 1st-July 1st, 2024.

Poem Pattern

Type your poem single-spaced in at 10-point font（字体）. Double-space between stanzas（节）. Creatively title your poem using whatever font and font size you like. Print two copies of your poem. If your poem takes two pages, please do not print double-sided and do not attach together. You may submit 3 different poems at most.

How to Enter

Entering is as easy as 1-2-3! Fill out the Entry Form online to be given an Entry ID number. Fill out an online Entry Form for each poem, which you do not need to print. You may also download and print an Entry Form to mail in with your poem instead of entering online. In this case, do not write any Entry ID number on your poem. On both copies of your poem, type or write your Entry ID number on the top right corner and your Age Group number on the top left corner.

Where the Contest Profits Go

All contest profits go to our charitable arm, the Home School Foundation, which uses them to provide low-income homeschooling families with access to educational and legal resources to help them pursue homeschooling.

Entry Fee

To participate in our Poetry Contest, each entry requires a fee of $15. This fee supports the administrative costs of the contest and contributes to our charitable efforts. Foreign checks are not accepted. Mail your poem and entry fee, payable to Poetry Foundation. Remember to include an entry fee for each poem—they may be combined onto one check.

Judging and Other Information

Poems will be judged by a group of judges chosen by Poetry Foundation. Poems will be judged on originality of thought, writing style, artistic use of poetic techniques, and the theme and form requirements. Poetry judging is relatively subjective, but it is our goal through a wide group of judges to select winning poems that show excellence in all these areas. The decision of the judges is final.

All contest participants will be told the results by email one month after the deadline for submissions before they are published on the website. The prize-winning poetry will be published in the magazine.

2 . Nature was Chen Rui’s “childhood home”. The 37-year-old researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology (中国科学院动物研究所) was not able to talk until he was 4 years old because of the way his brain processes sensory information.

This _______ him “strange” in some people’s minds. So, he didn’t have friends who were around his age. This led him to turn his _______ to nonhuman things around him. He became fascinated (着迷) by the world of _______ .

“The _______ time of my childhood was in the farm fields,” says Chen. “I squatted (蹲下) there, _______ the activities of insects, including ants building their homes, grasshoppers nibbling grass and dragonflies flying low. I had so many questions about their activities and was full of _______ about this world.”

These experiences _______ a seed in his heart. Decades later, he’s a scholar who has _______ life-science investigations in nearly 100 countries and regions on five continents. He has found around 100 new _______ , living and extinct, many of which are named ________ him.

“I was a child who was ‘cured’ by ________ ,” he says. “I wanted to grow up to ________ the power of nature with more young people and to popularize understanding of animals, including insects. I wanted to start classes to bring children to learn in the open air and ________ the gifts nature endows (赋予).” These aspirations (愿望) led him to recently ________ the popular-science book, Du Chong Ji (Reading About Insects).

It’s a continuation of a mission he began to act upon ________ a freshman in 2006, when he started a(n) ________ for people interested in insects at Nanjing Agricultural University. He often ________ for members to visit the Zijin Mountain in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, to ________ insects. His organization ________ had nearly 600 members.

After graduating in 2010, Chen was ________ to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences to complete his doctorate in zoology. In 2016, he was recruited (录用) by the Institute of Zoology of the CAS.

3 . Antarctica (南极洲) is the coldest place on Earth. It's also the driest. With annual rainfall close to zero, Antarctica is technically a desert. Covering about 14 million square kilometers around the South Pole, it is the fifth largest continent in the world. A high mountain range, the Trans-Antarctic range, runs from east to west, cutting the continent in two. There are volcanoes too, but they are not very active. Antarctica holds 90% of the world's ice, and most of its fresh water (70%) is in a frozen state, of course. 98% of the surface is covered permanently in the ice cap. On average it is two kilometers thick, but in some places it reaches a depth of five kilometers. Strong winds driven by gravity blow from the pole to the coastline, while other winds blow round the coast. It is difficult to imagine a more inhospitable (不宜居的) place.

Yet Antarctica is full of wildlife, which has adapted to its extreme conditions. There are different types of penguins, flying birds, seals, and whales. But the long Antarctic winter night, which lasts for 182 days (the longest period of continuous darkness on earth) , as well as the extreme cold and lack of rainfall, means that few types of plants can survive there. Only two types of flowering plants are found, while there are no trees on the large continent. The rest of the plants are made up of mosses, algae and lichen. Some forms of algae have adapted to grow on ice.

Most of the ice has been there for thousands of years. As a result, it has become a window on the past, and can give researchers lots of useful information. Gases and minerals, in the form of volcanic dust trapped in the ice, can tell us a lot about what the world's climate was like in past ages. Antarctic rocks are also very important for research. Most of them are meteorites (陨石) from outer space. One rock, known as the “Alien” rock, may contain evidence of extra-terrestrial (外星人) life.

Antarctica was the last continent to be discovered. But more than two thousand years ago Greek geographers believed that there was a large land mass in the south which balanced the land in the north. They called it Anti-Arktikos, or Antarctica: the opposite of Arctic (北极) . When Europeans discovered the continent of America in 15 century, the great age of exploration began. However, progress to the South Pole was slow. Not until the late 18h century did the British explorer James Cook cross the Antarctic Circle, but he never saw land. Then in 1895, a Norwegian called Carstens Borchgrevink became the first man to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. The race to the pole had begun. It was finally reached on 11^th December, 1911 by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

7 . It’s not uncommon in America for a person to belong to some kind of volunteer group. Donating one’s time and services is very much a part of the American way of life. Most charitable activities are organized by churches and groups around the nation and even encouraged by the government. The helping hand is extended to the poor, the homeless and the disabled. Some people work to teach youngsters how to read. Others open up soup kitchens to feed the homeless. Volunteers also take care of the disabled by making reading tapes for the blind and working in orphanages (孤儿院) to help children without parents.

High school students are often encouraged to become volunteers and many school club activities center around volunteer services. Students may work with disabled children during a summer program, or participate in a club activity which helps to bring meal to senior citizens who are shut-ins. With their sense of idealism students are often eager to donate their spare time. They see such activities as a way of becoming involved in the community and the adult-world. Social action for them becomes as important as their academic studies.

In a like manner, throughout the year, fund raising drives are also conducted by schools and community groups to raise money for a worthy cause. They may respond to a recent earthquake in a foreign country, a flood somewhere within their own, or another natural disaster which has left people destitute and homeless. They may organize drives to collect food, clothing and medicines to serve an immediate need. Today even the Halloween custom of ‘trick or treat’ has become an occasion to collect money for a charitable cause.

The motive to help those less fortunate comes from the poor origins of the American nation. Those immigrants who were poor and downtrodden (受压迫的) became dependent on the kindness of their neighbors to make a new life for themselves.

American volunteers work throughout the world in less developed countries. They volunteer by serving as a champion of goodwill both at home and abroad, which no doubt enriches both his life and those whom he serves.

9 . I stopped my grocery cart and took out the phone buzzing in my purse. It was Julia, my 19-year daughter, calling from the ___________. She told me she was very

She said she had worked very hard but still had zero ___________. She thought she should ___________ major. “You don’t have to ___________ that right away,” I said. “This isn’t the best place for a serious ___________ and I needed to ___________ what to say. I’ll call you back after I load the car.”

I remembered what had ___________ in the past. Julia was a toddler then and her brother was in preschool. Their father and I had gone to a friend’s house to watch a ____________. When there were only five minutes ____________, the Colts were 21 points down. I ____________ we head home immediately. “It is clearly over,” I said.

On my way to work the next morning, I learned that the competition had been ____________ over. After we   ____________, the Colts scored 21 points in only four minutes, tying the score and sending the game into overtime. They won by a field goal. We’d ____________ one of the best comebacks of all time.

The ____________ reminded me what I could say to Julia. I pressed the redial button as soon as I ____________ the car. “Don’t give up,” I said. “____________ doing your best, and you just might be ____________.”   ____________Julia got a B and passed her test later.

10 . Deanna Jump made headlines when it was announced she’d brought in a million dollars selling her lesson plans online. Despite the windfall, Jump, has no plans to quit the work she considers her calling. She spoke with us about her secrets for creating units that kids and fellow teachers can’t resist.

How did you get the idea of selling your work online?

Deanna Jump: I’ve always created my own activities and units, and I’ve always shared them with my fellow teachers. A few years ago, one of my team members said, “Your stuff is so good. You’ve got to put it on Teachers Pay Teachers.” I got started. The first year, my sales were really slow with about $300. But I thought that was great.

How has the income changed your life?

DJ: Teachers in America don’t make a lot of money, so I really consider it a blessing. I have a brother who’s a quadriplegic (四肢瘫痪的人). For about 13 years, he was stuck at home unless he had a doctor’s appointment. With my first big check, we bought a van so our mother could take him around. I also give some to my community. But I still drive a Kia. I still live in the same house.

What advice would you give fellow teachers who might want to sell their lessons?

DJ: Stay true to yourself. My teaching style is reflected in my units. I don’t try to say, “Okay, how would this teacher over here do it?” and try to create something for her. Also, be a teacher first, and a seller second. Be careful to make sure that you don’t say, “Oh, my goodness, I haven’t put anything out for two months. I need to get something out.” I never think like that. I create things with my students in mind.