A great poem is like a pair of glasses: it brings the world into sharp focus. Weaving together images, metaphor, rhythm, and so much more, the poet presents people, nature, experiences, and memories to us in a fresh and true light. Reading and listening to your entries in our Poetry & Spoken Word Competition, our most popular competition EVER, we had the thrilling experience of seeing the world through so many different and enlightening lenses.
Check out the winners, finalists, and honorable mentions as well as Guest Judge Amina Atiq’s accompanying commentary below!
WINNERS:
Best Poem: Flavorless by lyatmelese (US)
Flavorless recapitulates the challenges of a migrant journey into America, showing us fragments such as “a hand clamping the oceans” before the world became “a paper map.” It speaks to many migrant journeys across the world and is relevant today more than ever. The descriptive language and imagery take us on a passage of memories and serve as a reminder that migrant journeys all look different. We can hear the “murmurs or broken English and native tongue.” It is breathtaking and somewhat feels shattered—there is a sense of sacrifice that comes with journeys. The speaker asks if anything is free; a word that makes us question the liberty we have to travel through borders, but whom do these borders belong to? And at what price? The tone drastically changes when we are invited into the kitchen where the mother fries chicken for dinner, with “just salt to dance on tongues.” We are reminded that food and eating are a big part of our identity and heritage. We are left wanting to know more about this speaker, their stories and family memories. We need stories that are true, and this poem gives us exactly that.
Best Spoken Word: Roundtrip by Cydney Brown (US)
This is an emotive and passionate performance with a significant social commentary messaging of equality, justice and power, provoking rhetorical questions of moral responsibility in this metaphorical “roundtrip.” It gives us snippets of descriptive images, and strikes a chord when it leaves us with a ship that drowns if justice is ignored. These significant themes from a young voice are an important reminder that poetry needs to be heard more than ever. It makes me excited about the future when I listen to young poets who use their poetic voice to challenge injustice and it’s a reminder that spoken word will live on as long as we are here. Cydney Brown is the future of bringing positive change through poetry and performance—if anything needs attention, it is the young voices that are entering the spoken word stage.
PEER REVIEW WINNER:
Best Peer Review: AllisonHRedwood’s (Japan) review of Cloud 9
AllisonHRedwood did a wonderful job balancing thoughtful praise with constructive criticism. The reviewer’s in-text comments offer broader notes of affirmation, before questioning the meaning, tone, and placement of individual words. This feedback was specific, often laying out detailed instructions for how the writer might improve their poem, such as turning a single phrase into an extended metaphor, or elevating its diction.
Many great poems hinge on brief but important moments of reflection, and the reviewer does so well pinpointing these moments within the poem. Meanwhile, their holistic feedback was encouraging, inquisitive, and at times personal (“The ending stanza got me thinking, as I enjoy daydreaming a lot”), emphasizing the human qualities of good poetry. All of which is packaged within a brief and substantive review.
POETRY FINALISTS:
Archipelago by Davin Faris (US)
To the Killer by Nisiy (Ukraine)
Algebraic Fracture by ngte (New Zealand)
TRUE/FALSE by wishtree (US)
SPOKEN WORD FINALIST:
Ballad of Apulu by Squirrel Girl (US)
PEER REVIEW FINALIST:
Andie_Greenwood’s (US) review of I Found Comfort in My Own Little Paradise
POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HIGHLY COMMENDED: (alphabetical by poem title)
Caterpillars by Aashna_Kapur07 (US)
Cry for Acceptance by Bella_De (UK)
Deeper Than You Think by leenah_07 (US)
Doesn’t Exist by swimmer savina (US)
Han by Apark (US)
Hope Is Not a Thing With Feathers by Joelle Nuara (US)
I Swallowed My Cat by Jay Simmons (UK)
Incomprehensible by Abiks (US)
Love Was by marley (US)
Mama Said by Becky Zhong (China)
Me Against Me by BonnieW (UK)
My Ah-ma Is Not Your Superwoman by Jackie Huang
No Narcissus, Not Me by HeyThereRose (UK)
O’ Glass by Blue Rose (US)
Plague and Prejudice by Bibek8372 (India)
Pretty […] by a.hugg0209 (UK)
Refraction by anntai (Taiwan)
Rising Waters by Aribrown3! (US)
Sin and Violets by Mia Scattergood (UK)
The Valley of the Poet by KanjiKat (Canada)
Trembling Survival by Sunday (US)
We Breathe by zoedorado (US)
What Is Justice? by Elkwoode (US)
You Are Not Gone Yet. by ghost.writer (US)
