Poetry Night

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Poetry Night occurs at CTY Carlisle on the first Thursday, (occasionally second Monday,) second Thursday, (occasionally third Monday,) 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." The stage is usually dark, although an RA is usually willing help with their flashlights.

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, although a pink fuzzy Walmart tiara has been introduced as of 10.1. It is passed along to each goddess along with a matching silver wand with fuzzy pink material and a star at the end. In 10.2, Ross began a second session tradition of duct tape laurels, much like the crowns of Passionfruit monarchs, where the old goddess makes the new goddess laurels.

At the end of the last night, the Poetry Goddess passes on the role to the person (usually onemore, except in the case of the 09.2 and 10.1 poetry goddess) Whoever she considers to be most embodying of the spirit of Poetry Night becomes 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. In 10.1, the Poetry Goddess was chosen by the Emperor, Empress and Jesus (Carlisle) because the chosen Goddess had not returned. In 14.2 the chosen goddess was unable to return so she choose someone to return in her place.

Baltimore Session 1's first poetry goddess was crowned in 18.1 and will begin their work in 19.1.

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... but not SRA Lauren.
  • 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.
  • On the last poetry night of the session, nevermores and nomores have priority.

Poetry Goddesses

2003:

  • Session 1: Jenna S-O.

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. (silver laurels)

2011:

  • Session 1: Matt M.// Jordan Raitses
  • Session 2: Amalia B. (green laurels)

2012:

  • Session 1: Cliff Pinky Tang
  • Session 2: Ben Y.// Emily Li (red laurels)

2013:

  • Session 1: Rachel Cooper
  • Session 2: Emily Evenden // Emma Johnson (Hello Kitty laurels)

2014:

  • Session 1: Ben Robertson
  • Session 2: Christiane Swenson

2015:

  • Session 1: Reece Guziewicz
  • Session 2: Aidan Yrizarry

2016:

2017:

  • Session 1: Reese Liebmann
  • Session 2: Tess Buchanan

2018:

2019:

2020:

2026:

2027:

  • Session 2: Evan Schirripa

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 2010.

In 2010.1, the last poetry night was held during the last meet market for the nevermore class of 2010; highlights included the nevermore class congregating on the upper part of the wall to sing The General by Dispatch. Among the highlights of 2010 poetry nights included an ode to HUB Potatoes, "You Want My Taters" by Colin, the future 11.1 emperor, Asher's poem entailing almost every band name possible, an interpretative dance with a hairdryer, a bro-em and the CTY version of Asher Roth's "I Love College".

You Want My Taters, a parody of the original Chicken Song Remix by Mike Felix and Mervin Liriano of the Dreamteam

Crispy, french fried, hash browned just for you
You want my taters; I know you want my taters
Singin' Crispy, french fried, hash browned just for you
You want my taters; I know you want my taters

Looked out my window and what did I see?
I saw a potato looking at me
I said, "Hey, Tater! Come ride with me!
But guess where we're going? TO THE H-U-B!"

Throw them in the deep frier, get 'em crispy
Make some taters mashed, in case you're thirsty
And my CTY-ers want some more over here
I don't mind coming down
Take them taters, and toss 'em around

If I don't get potatoes, I'll start to frown
I'm not joking, I'm not a clown
Look at me, man; I'm a tater hound
Get in a cab and go to Carlisle town.


As of 17.1, Poetry Night has been held in the compost area across from the main office, by the end of Uber Quad. Poetry Night was previously held on the wall next to the office, but Dickinson built an enormous roofed bike rack in this spot which prevented this. Emperor Leah Branstetter read various Wikipedia articles during every Poetry Night, amusing many, but read a touching poem about Carlisle during the last Poetry Night.


As of 26.2, After the closure of CTY sites during COVID-19, the Poetry Goddess position was not passed down and poetry night did not occur until session 2 of 2026 when CTYers wanting to bring back past customs planned to integrate more original Carlisle traditions. When brought up to staff at Carlisle it was met with immense approval and Chris New Jersey even bought new props (wand, crown and cape). The first poetry night occurred on the first Thursday of the Carlisle 26.2 session to wide attendance in the quad, starting in what is hoped to be new Carlisle Poetry Goddess Canon, and ending in a guitar rendition of Closing Time.


The Tale of Two CTY Birds (The Opening Poem- Noa Offnar)

I wait for the crucial moment of receival. It arrives, the invitation to camp CTY! CTY is what every teenage nerd dreams of. I hop out of my straw nest and fly to the CTY invite office; I give them my invitation. I jump with joy as they give me the ok. At CTY I meet another 14-year-old bird from Virginia. We become friends and do everything together. We learn to Rave (I got 35-dollar Poi), we take classes together (We’re both in FicPo), we even learned all the meaningless chants (Like the 3 second closed mouth kiss). One day we were forgotten in the dorm, the RA left for night meds without us! “We should just go ourselves” I say. “But what about the rule that we have to be accompanied by an RA?” my friend asks. “Who cares, they forgot about us anyway” I reply. We go out to the quad and see a suspicious Eagle on the grounds. He doesn’t have a lanyard! We walked a little faster. Right before we reach Weise, the man walks up to us and pulls out a knife! He threatens us with it and asks us to follow him. We follow him to his nest where we see a big pile of bloody bones. We look at each other and scream as if we’ve seen a ghost, but he puts his wings over our mouths, silencing us. I gape at him as he pulls out a knife and stabs my friend in the heart. I scram and close my eyes as I think Now it’s my turn. I feel the knife slide into me. Moral: Don’t go outside without an RA/ Don’t talk to strangers

I laugh quietly as I watch the two young goldfinches crossing the quad in the dark. They’re the perfect prey. They’re both CTYers, I can see that because they have lanyards around their necks. I creep closer to them and pull out a jagged knife, making it obvious I mean them harm. They look at me with fear before following me to my nest. I bring them to my nest and stab them both, I started ripping them apart and eating them. Suddenly, my stomach starts growling and aching; I start feeling sick. I throw up over the side of my nest, I look down and see soft serve Ice Cream in the throw up. I investigate the young birds’ bellies and see only Ice Cream and Pizza. I think to myself I guess these talented youth aren’t talented at picking what to eat. I fall out of my nest because I become too fat from eating and break the tree branch. I try to open my wings, but they don’t help because eating too much made me heavy. I crash into the ground and hear my neck crack. Everything goes black. Moral: Don’t eat people/ Eat healthy

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