Cleveland Fans Get Poetic Justice in Herald's LeBron Contest

News of the Herald's LeBron poetry contest reached Ohio, and not all the submissions were pretty

When you think of Lebron James, you think power, athleticism, and...poetry?

In honor of Lebron's Miami Heat debut, WLRN and the Miami Herald are running a Lebron James Poetry Contest.

P. Scott Cunningham, the director of O' Miami, a city-wide poetry festival, is in charge of picking 6 finalists from the hundreds of submissions. He read us a few lines from some of the poems.

Lebron said yes
And oh my gosh
Before you know it
We had Chris Bosh

Then came the decision
It just seemed so out of reach
But Lebron said, 'I'm taking my talent, down to South Beach"

Lebron left Cleveland with no palace
Barkley and the NBA are so jealous

"I guess 'jealous' is supposed to rhyme with 'palace'?" Cunningham said.

Most of the entries rhyme, but they don't have to. The poems can be any form, as long as they're 6 lines or less -- 6 in honor of Lebron's jersey number.

The poems can also be negative. And since word spread everywhere on the Internet, including Cleveland, the contest is getting slammed with anti-Lebron poems, like this one posted on www.cleveland.com:

We supported you
We cheered you
We spent our hard-earned bucks
And you betray your birthplace on national TV? That sucks!

Here are two examples of Cleveland entries (that don't include four-letter words):

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I hope your life in Miami
Ends badly for you

and

Lebron Lebron, you were a phenomenon
You left the cold for the Heat and now you're just a peon

All poems, positive or negative, will be considered for the top-prize. The winner gets 2 tickets to a Heat game, 2 tickets to an O' Miami Poetry Festival reading, and the opportunity to read the winning poem on the radio on opening night.

The deadline to enter is Friday. The 6 finalists will be announced on Monday. To enter, go to http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/user/form_display.php?isPIJ=Y&form_code=ab68f13c0931

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