What rhymes with “Times”?
Does it matter? Not to poets evoking the flair of Times Square, standing behind a microphone on a gusty late September evening to read the winning entries in the “Bright Lights Big Verse: Poems of Times Square” contest.
About 500 people competed as part of an effort to improve the image of the chaotic stretch of concrete once synonymous with petty crime, peep shows and sleazy shops.
If the judges and winners — whose work can be seen online at timessquarenyc.org — are any indication, this competition is not for amateurs. It’s also not just for New Yorkers.
Only one of this year’s four winners, Ben Miller, actually lives here.
“This is a national place, actually an international place,” Miller said, explaining why nonlocals would be driven to write poetry about the expanse between West 42nd and West 47th streets.
“Times Square epitomizes the hyperstimulation that makes people feel alive,” said Mary Jo Bang, a contest winner who lived in New York in the 1990s. The Missouri native now heads the creative writing program at Washington University in St. Louis.
The other winners were Henk Rossouw and Jehanne Dubrow.