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When Dennis Farmer dropped by the main branch of the library last week, he saw a room full of African-American men sitting. Just sitting. It appeared to him they weren’t using laptops or reading or doing paperwork for their jobs, as he was. Just sitting.

He was so enraged ... he decided to write a poem about it.

Or at least to get started, thanks to a flyer he saw as he was leaving the main branch lobby. The flyer was for a “Poetry Bootcamp.”

‘Tenshun, poets!

Farmer was among a small handful of would-be bards who came by the Fair Haven branch library community room Thursday afternoon to sort out their pentameters from their villanelles.

The one-hour training was also a way to pump up submissions to the New Haven Free Public Library’s fifth annual poetry contest. Anyone can send in work on the theme “a place of light,” with the deadline for submission March 23 at 5 p.m. You can drop off the work at any branch or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Teen services librarian Angelina Carnevale led the group through a packed 30-minute session on rhythm, meter, form, and structure. (If you don’t know the difference between blank verse and free verse, read to the end of this article.)

The writers were then sent to write poems and given prompts if they needed them.

Farmer said the session will help him turn agitation into poetry, although the session ended before he was prepared to begin. He took Carnevale’s business card and said he would be in touch, and submit.

“I was thinking of rhyme only. Now I’ve got more options,” he said.

Click here for details for submitting to the library’s contest.

Oh, according to boot camp poetry drill sergeant Carnevale’s handout: Blank verse (most of Shakespeare is written in this, ye Hamlet ticket-holders) is defined as unrhymed iambic pentameter. That is not to be confused with free verse, which has no consistent meter.

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