Editor and founder of the New Zealand organisation, Dunedin poet Ruth Arnison said the competition aimed to provide a new selection of poems for use in the cards, to advertise the project and help with ongoing funding so the venture could expand its distribution area.
At the moment, the charity provides free poetry cards each season to medical centres and rest-homes in a variety of places in the South Island, a Samoan maternity hospital and Scott Base.
Its spring edition was also transcribed into braille, something the organisation would like to repeat if it could secure funding.
This summer, Nelson and Marlborough rest-homes and medical centres will receive their first cards.
Mrs Arnison is keen to include Canterbury by the end of next year and, in the long term, she would like the project to cover all of New Zealand.
Finding money to cover the cards' ongoing production has been a constant battle for the fledgling organisation.
There will be a competition entry fee of $5 for one poem or $10 for up to three poems from one entrant.
Aspiring contestants, who have until the end of February to enter, are asked to take into account the "nature of the waiting room environment" when considering the subject or theme of their poems.
The poetry must be "easily accessible, and not make great demands".
Poems with political, religious or morbid overtones will not be successful, the competition details say.
First prize in the competition, to be judged by Dunedin poet Kay McKenzie Cooke, will be $175.
