Hi Lois,
That's a good point, one that I'm aware of and wary of. The point of including previously published poems is to increase the overall quality of the submissions received. However, now that you've expressed this familiar concern, I think it's not unreasonable to limit the finalists to entries that cannot be Googled--which will translate to print publications and books not yet in Google's database. So, here's a little tweak to the rules: if you're a finalist and your sonnet can be googled, you'll be given a chance to send in a replacement sonnet, which may or may not make the finals, in which case another sonnet will chosen as replacement.
Cheers,
...Alex
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