My local library is holding a poetry contest.  One of the rules is that only  original, unpublished  poems may be submitted to the contest.  I called  the library and ask them whether poems  posted on the Internet count as being published for the purposes of the contest.  They said that poems that are posted on the Internet do count as being published.    If this is the case, this means that  all of the poems that I have posted on this website are now no longer eligible to be  submitted for the contest, and most likely are not eligible to be published in any  contest, or print magazine for that matter.  Could people who have experience with being published tell me whether or not my conclusion is correct?   Are all of the poems that I have submitted to this website  now no longer eligible to be published anywhere else?   If that is the case,  I was certainly unaware of it previously.  Had I known that, I think I would have waited a while before  posting my poems on the Internet.

Michael