Bad poet writes about her debt, wins $1,000

With $8,000 in credit card debt, it didn't take Salyna Gingras long to write a poem about being in debt . It's a subject that she unfortunately knows too much about. To her fortune, however, she managed to write the worst poem she could about this unpleasant topic ... and was rewarded handsomely for her efforts.

Gingras won $1,000 in the Bad Poetry Contest sponsored by Spendonlife.com, a credit management site. We wrote about the contest last month here at WalletPop, and Gingras, whose only poetry credentials are the ditties she composes for family birthday cards, figured she should try her hand. The challenge was to write the very worst poem about being in debt.

I was one of five contest judges, and I'm proud to say that I had Gingras' poem at the top of my list. It turns out there's a skill to writing bad poetry, (even though I don't consider her poem particularly bad or poorly written.) But you be the judge: read some of the other 150 entries here.