The task of the poet is to weave together disparate images, memories, and experiences to present a unique vision of the world. And you more than delivered on this mission with your entries in our Poetry & Spoken Word Competition, inspiring and moving us with your fresh points of view. As Guest Judge Jacob Sam-La Rose says, “the Write the World community is doing something right.”
Check out Jacob’s winning picks and commentary below!
Best Written Poem: goldfish by jellybean568 (US)
There’s much to celebrate in “Goldfish.” Its circular structure: the way currency anchors and opens each movement, and the way the poem’s resolution leaves us with a goldfish and the same two cents we were offered in the first line. “Goldfish” offers up a series of open questions and yet its power stretches out beyond any easy, concrete answers, taking in migration, what distance can do, what we hold onto in spite of separation, and those quintessential questions (for so many of us) of what “home” is and where it might reside, a line of thinking amplified by structural circularity. It’s a beautifully wrought poem, rendered with deft touches—paper card promises, a sky that should have been grey, a sandcastle melting before its time—and through it all, a crystal voice directly addressing “lao lao” (which I’ve read as “grandmother”); a relationship that broadens the sense of distance beyond the physical or geographical realms into the generational. There’s so much happening within this poem, and yet it holds together. Its author should be proud.
Best Spoken Word Poem: Dandelion by serotonin (Canada)
I feel this poem. And yes, I can praise the evidence of craft and technique. Can we talk about the controlled sense of rhyme and musicality? Who rhymes “story” with “morning”, and makes it work!? This one phrase: “ … history teachers who pronounce the leader of the CCP Mao, but I’d be a hypocrite to blame them now because it’s not like I can pronounce my own last name …”. Pronounce, Mao, now, pronounce … a chain of “ao/ow” sounds seeded by the usage of “sound” and “Kung Pao” offered earlier in the poem, wrapped up with a bold repetition of “pronounce” that’s so appropriate for what’s being said, and how that chain of sound is punctuated and turned by the shift from “ow” sounds to “own.” Yes— so much to praise, but the power in this poem lies in the tension between that absolute and dizzying joy of what language can do, and the pain of the experience it details. There’s no clean, hopeful resolution here. All of the impassioned linguistic athleticism stands in service to a sense of cultural loss and alienation, a loss that the voice of the poem itself feels both victim of and complicit in. By the end, the poem and its performance leave us hanging, demanding that we make our own way down. Beautifully, powerfully done.
Best Peer Review: Yellow Sweater’s (US) review of It Hurts
I have to say, I was torn by this decision. Offering meaningful peer review demands a delicate balance, holding space between celebrating the aspects of a piece of work that resonate for you and offering feedback on details you feel can be challenged or pushed further. So many of the reviewers whose reviews I read did a good job of maintaining this balance (the Write the World community is doing something right … ). But having read through everything, the quality of one specific comment stuck with me. Yes, Yellow Sweater was able to single out aspects of Nyla’s poem for praise—the opening repetition, how rhyme is appropriately employed at points throughout the piece, the quality and emotive power of particular phrases. And they were able to offer meaningful suggestions and edits, picking up on words and phrases that could stand to be excised, even down to points of punctuation, and possibilities for more figurative language. In addition to all of this, there’s a quite brilliant comment on the nature of faith that charmed me and offered evidence of real investment in the poem they were reviewing, a sense of appreciation that reached out beyond any differences in religious beliefs.
Written Poem Finalists:
Jeepney smoke by chrislim101 (Philippines)
Sunset Sand by Anish Aradhey (US)
Pockets of City by chrysos (US)
Smoking Gun by SAli (Canada)
Spoken Word Finalists:
Faded Memory by aajaleel (Canada)
mathemusician ∩ the epiphany of schrödinger’s cat by mitch.momo (Canada)
4am British Summer Time by TheSpacePoet (UK)
A Country Ablaze by Globalgal (US)
Highly Commended:
The Ocean, My Friend by vastexpansion (US)
Whirlwind of change by bhumi (US)
We Went Down to the Island With No Name by Taylor West (US)
This is how I learned a little bit about the world by Cosmogyral (US)
And They Do by Jey Min (Singapore)
Colour outside the line by Parisienne (UK)
Editor’s Note: Thank you to everyone who entered our Poetry and Spoken Word Competition, there were truly so many incredible pieces submitted. We hope all of you continue to write and perform poetry—the world needs your words!
