The search is on for 2010 Pennsylvania poet laureate

Entries are now being accepted for regional winners in the 18th annual National Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition for American poets age 50 and older in which the Pennsylvania Senior Poet Laureate is sought. Deadline is June 30.

Winning poems of state senior poets laureate will be named in July, following which they advance to final rounds of competition from which the winner of $500 and the 2010 National Senior Poet Laureate title will be announced around Sept. 1.

Mildred Taylor of Ligonier won the 2009 Pennsylvania Senior Poet Laureate Award with her poem "March Moth." Winner of the 2009 National Annual Senior Poet Laureate Award was Patricia Frolander, 66, a rancher from Sundance, Wyo. For her poem "Father when You call."

Co-sponsors Vera-Jane Goodin Schultz and Wanda Sue Parrott founded the contest administered by Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation in 1993.

The 2009 winners can be seen in Golden Words Anthology, along with rules for the 2010 Senior Poets Laureate Contest, at www.amykitchenerfdn.org.