Text post that says “contemporary verse 2, 2 Day poem contest 2026. April 17-19th”
And that is a WRAP on the #2DayContest2026 !
Thank you so much for your participation, and we hope to see you again next year!!
Sleeping fuzzy cat
my poetic assistant is really sleeping on the job as i give this year's #2daycontest2026 poem my last polish! but she's full of pizzazz so i guess it's alright.
thanks for another fun weekend @cv2magazine.bsky.social! i think this one might've been the hardest one yet!
Shepherd-Husky cross lying on tiled patio—feet on mat-- next to Japanese maple in blue pot.
Hazel’s favourite sounding word is “zugzwang”--also because she often blocks us from moving with her long body. Her writing advice includes multiple visits to the patio & maple worship. She also suggested I clean the filthy mat under her feet. @cv2magazine.bsky.social #2DayContest2026
#2DayContest2026 The deadline is inching closer! Which of the 10 words did you find the most challenging this year?
A grey tabby cat sleeps on a circle with his paw covering his face. He is on a chair covered by a light blue fleece blanket.
This is Newton, my 'writing buddy' @cv2magazine.bsky.social. So far his only advice for the #2DayContest2026 has been 'maybe try napping.'
What have I signed up for @cv2magazine.bsky.social? #2DayPoem2026 #zugzwang
This is my 5th year participating in the #2DayPoem2026 contest
@cv2magazine.bsky.social. I somehow managed an accomplished draft. Happier already than last year’s hot mess. Some years are simply better than others. I’ve learned to just go walk the dog. Time to do just that.
Two monitors for twice the poetry!
Attention poets!! Where in the world are you working from? Share your workstation for the #2DayContest2026 !
This is my third year participating in the #2DayPoem2026 contest with @cv2magazine.bsky.social . I've got a solid first draft so think I will have a walk to let it simmer, then come back to tweak for a second draft.
Good catch, that's our mistake! Deipnosophist is a NOUN.
woke up early, looked at the @cv2magazine.bsky.social 2-day poem words, decided to go back to sleep. i wasn’t ready for this shit.
I planned to get up early. My older dog beat the alarm by 15 minutes. Laundry, dishes, coffee, and now settling in to the @cv2magazine.bsky.social #2daypoemcontest. I had a few ideas over the week, I think one of them'll work with the words.
Ready, set, WRITE! The 2026 2-Day Contest has begun!
This year's words are zugzwang, deipnosophist, ululation, solivagant, pizzazz, funk, sniffishness, express, clam, and bone. #2DayContest2026
Good luck 😈 and get writing!!!
Ready for the 10 words to drop for CV2’s 2-Day Poem Contest in about 90 minutes. @cv2magazine.bsky.social #Poetry
The event is free to attend (with donations accepted) and part of First Fridays in the Exchange. We hope you'll plan to stop in during your wanderings through some of Winnipeg's most creative nooks. We can't wait to come together with our community for this night of poetry and fun!
We'll have readings by J.R. Léveillé, Catherine Hunter, Sarah Klassen, Jaime Black-Morsette, Sarah Ens, Van Osborne Zimrose, Shawna Dempsey, and George Amabile, as well as live music from Theresa Thor!
Announcing: the readers for our Poetry Month Wrap Party!
We're so happy to be joined on May 1st by some of the wonderful Winnipeg-based contributors whose work appeared in CV2 this past year!
Friday, May 1st
6:30PM doors / 7:00PM readings
Video Pool Media Arts Centre, 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg
I am participating in the 2-Day Poem Contest this weekend! I will do my best to represent the mountain time zone.
... But time eventually runs out, as it must, so at that point one has to kiss it goodbye and send it on its way.
... Gradually, in this manner, I scribbled away at it, something evolved, and after a day or so, I typed the preliminary format in my laptop. Once that phase is over, then it's edit, edit and edit again--which is also a process of setting it down and leaving it to breathe and mature for a bit. ...
... I closed my notebook and went and did something else. I've found, over the years, that my subconscious will do a lot of the initial work for me. It's critical to allow the work to process in stages, and not hunker over it sweating, trying to force something to be birthed. ...
Q: What was your writing schedule like during the contest?
A: When I woke up in the morning, the words and their threads had been percolating in my sleep. I wrote down the first things that came into my head, whether they were nonsensical or not, until that well was tapped out ...
Q: What was the first thing you did when you got the contest words?
A: I opened the words at midnight, wrote them down. Obviously checked the meanings... read over them for about fifteen minutes, letting threads of thought attach themselves. Wrote down the threads. Then I slept on them.
Registration for the 2-Day Contest is now closed. We'll see you all this weekend! Words will be posted as well as emailed out.
In the meantime, you may want to take some inspiration from last year's second place winner, kerry rawlinson! @kerryrawli.bsky.social shares her process below.
... So don’t forget to think metaphorically, too. Another useful trick is to make some words so crucial to the poem’s emotional landscape that you might be able to use them again later in the poem."
I realized that if I was already writing about nicknames, I would be free to use the word metaphorically, to loosen it up a bit. So I wrote about language and names, which allowed me to sort of neutralize the word hypocorism by turning it into “a stiff lexical cabinet.” ...
... I initially tried to answer that question in my poem, going down several time-wasting research rabbit holes. But this route dragged down the spirit of the poem. I could see that I would never be able to detach a word like hypocorism from its literal meaning, which is basically a nickname.
Sarah says: "If you’re stuck on a word, I suggest playing with its metaphorical implications. In 2025, the trickiest word was probably hypocorism. It’s a very specific, technical-sounding word and not all that melodic to my ear. The word irked me to no end. Why? Why does this word even exist? ...
