News & Blog

Poetry is the expression
of human experience.

It is the
              voice
                        when finding ourselves
                        past and future identities.

Poems are a universal noise
bringing truth from silence
on our lived experiences in
              race,
                      gender,
                                   sexuality,
                                                   ethnicity,
                                                                  religion,
                                                                                health,
                                                                                           and family.

These verses,
in whichever form they take,
are the hopes,
                        dreams,
                                     rage,
                                             and tears
that move our lives.

UCF Libraries is proud to raise up other voices as part of the largest literary celebration in the world.

We have gathered suggestions to feature 16 books of poetry that are currently in the UCF collection. These works represent the wide range of favorite poets for our faculty and staff. To compliment the works featured on the 2021 list, an additional 200 poetry books grace the shelves of our Featured Display next to the Research & Information Desk on the main floor of the John C. Hitt Library.

Featured Bookshelf: 2021 National Poetry Month

Congratulations to our 2019 Poetry Contest winners!

They each received a #UCFLibrary waterbottle and their work as been added to the KnightVerse, the student writing contest section of UCF Libraries’ digital repository, STARS.

Haiku winner:
“Fountain Finals” by Tim Walker

Sonnet winner:
“Together Apart” by Abel Birchfield

April is National Poetry Month and UCF Libraries is dashing forward with enthusiasm to celebrate.

Poetry Contests!

Haiku by You – Submissions due by April 7, 2019 at 11:59 pm
“Haiku” is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme.

#LibraryLove – Submissions due by April 14, 2019 at 11:59 pm. 
Poem of any style or length. What do you love about libraries?

Sonnets – Submissions due by April 21, 2019 at 11:59 pm. 
The sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, which employ one of several rhyme schemes and adhere to a tightly structured thematic organization. Sonnet styles via Academy of American Poets. Your submission can be on any subject.

Submit your poems here.

Contests are open to UCF students only.

One entry per student per contest. If more than one entry is submitted by a student per contest, all the entries by that person will be disqualified from that contest.

Judges reserve the right to not select a winner due to limited submissions, or lack of exceptional submissions.

Stories with explicit sexual content will not be considered for this contest.

Erasure Poetry

An Erasure Poetry table will be set up between the Circulation Desk and Reference Desk from April 1 – 5. Staff favorites will be displayed on the windows by the entrance and on library social media accounts.

Book Spine Poetry

Celebrate your #LibraryLove with Book Spine Poetry. Use books to craft a short poem. Share it to Facebook or Instagram tagging @ucflibrary #librarylove during the National Library Week (April 8 – 12). Both the staff favorite and the one with the most likes will get a #UCFLibrary waterbottle.

“If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!”

-Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends

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Congratulations to Zoe Smith, the winner of the UCF Libraries 2017 Haiku by You Poetry Contest. Her poem, The Best Things in Life Are, has become a permanent part of the UCF Digital Collections in the KnightVerse section Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship (STARS).

The Best Things in Life Are
by Zoe Smith

Fleeting moments like
footsteps; The earth trembles but
the evidence? Gone.