Dr. Hurley has asked the Editors of the Snake-Oil Cure to announce our first-ever all-poetry contest!
Fervently believing in the value of structures and constraints in the treatment of a wandering wit or unfocused creativity, the Doctor has decided it’s in the best interest of the very health of our poets to solicit Sonnets from you. In this case, we are particularly interested in the Shakespearean (or English or Elizabethan) Sonnet form (details below). You may draw inspiration from any source and write in any era’s vernacular. What is important is that you do the following:
- Send us your Sonnet, on any theme or topic, by email to snakeoilcure [at] gmail [dot] com.
- Do this no later than Sunday, October 16th.
- Follow traditional Shakespearean sonnet form (iambic pentameter – or as close as you can get to that; fourteen lines; rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg)
- Note what name we should use in crediting you
To the winner shall go the spoils, the glory, and much adulation from all of us. Away! To bed! We write at dawn!
Dr. Hurley's Snake-Oil Cure 
Mariya Koleva
/ October 7, 2011A most fair prompt ;-)
Darby O'Shea
/ October 7, 2011We’ll expect to hear from you, if you think it’s a good prompt!
Alexandra the Tsaritsa
/ October 10, 2011Oooh, I haven’t written a sonnet in the longest (since high-school, probably)! I’m going to try my hand at this.