Poetry Night

Poetry Night occurs at CTY Carlisle on the first Thursday, second Thursday, and last Wednesday of every session. Fundamentally, it consists of CTY students performing poetry in varying forms from the wall near Quad 7, that is, "the stage."

Performances may consist of traditional poetry (written by the CTYer, other CTYers, famous authors, etc.), songs, raps, and almost anything else that involves words being vocalized. The event is presided over by the Poetry Goddess (always officially "Goddess," whether female or male) who has the duty to lay out rules and guidelines, as well as opening and closing the Night with Her own performances. Unlike most other traditions, there is no physical symbol of Goddess-ship, though a crown of leaves has been suggested.

At the end of the last night, the Poetry Goddess passes on the role to the person (always a onemore, except in the case of the 09.2 poetry goddess) She considers to be most embodying of the spirit of Poetry Night, to be Goddess for the same session of the next year. In the event that the new Goddess fails to come to their session, or the line is not continued for whatever reason, a new Goddess must be manually chosen, most likely through election, though this has never happened. In 2010 the Poetry Goddess was chosen by the Emperor and Empress and Jesus (Carlisle) because the chosen Goddess had not returned.

General Rules

• No disclaimers (downing one's own poetry because "I'm not a very good poet," or "I wrote this really fast," or "This is probably really bad," etc. etc. etc.)
• Nothing CTY-inappropriate, though certain RAs will allow a degree of artistic license.
• Humorous poetry is allowed, but blatantly spam-like performances (such as recitations of "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall") are not permitted.
• No extremely long poems (put in place after Fish Stark's ten-minute poem "How Cheney Stole Christmas" was critically acclaimed but left many would-be readers still in line by the time Meet Market was over).
• Any person wishing to read should be allowed to read at least once before those who have already read return for seconds.

Poetry Goddesses

2004:

• Session 2: Audrey H.

2005:

• Session 1: Ali G.
• Session 2: Shannon S.

2006:

• Session 1: Alex K.
• Session 2: Schuyler "Crunk/Big bird" S.

2007:

• Session 1: Jake D. (Alex K. and Matt C.) Ryan H.
• Session 2: Philip C.

2008:

• Session 1: Chrispy
• Session 2: Freddie/Natalie

2009:

• Session 1: Stephanie O.
• Session 2: Kelsey S.

2010:

• Session 1: Claire Tang
• Session 2: Ross R.

2011:

• Session 1: Matt M.

History

"Poetry Readings were originally held behind Quad 9, by the garbage cans, but Dickinson College decided to "improve" the amenities and join Quads 9 and 10 together during the summer of 2005, hence obliterating our Poetry Spot. Thus, the summer of 2005, we held poetry readings in the circle by the Library, mostly because the entire Meet Market was moved away from the Quad areas... This served as a severe hindrance to the attendance at Poetry Readings."

--Roughly quoted from Shannon S., Poetry Goddess of Session II 2005.

The poetry circle of the library was actually a rather pleasant spot, with a little brick circle and benches. There was some vegetation around, and it was secluded enough to be fairly quiet, and rather peaceful. On the other hand, there really weren't enough benches for everyone, so many sat on the brick/ground, and a few even left entirely, causing the attendance to drop.

--Philip C.

In 2006, Poetry Night was done on the Quad 7 wall, as the Library area was off limits, and we were to stick to the quads area and the road, and KW lawn. You would read off of the lower part of the wall. If you were lucky, and fast, you would get a seat on the upper part. This continues into 2009.