Poetry Contests

  New York poet Joe Tessitore challenges poets to begin a poem with these words:   My country used to be...   Post your poem in the comments section below. (Poems should be metered.)

FIRST PLACE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F96xN0VV7JU The Virus and the Cure by Rob Crisell One hundred years of tyranny, One hundred years of pain and lies. If communists of China win, The Chinese culture dies. No virus spreads like wickedness. No plague infects like bogus creeds. No outbreak lasts a century, Nor’s worse...

by James A. Tweedie The form of the “brief” ordinarily consists of a couplet of anapestic tetrameter with the first soft beat of each line clipped off (x / xx / xx / xx /). The anapest, which functions very much like a dactyl, is meant to evoke a sense...

  Better Than Starbucks Sonnet Contest Accepting Submissions Beginning: October 1, 2020 Deadline: December 1, 2020 Top Prize: $100 Submission Fee: None Better Than Starbucks has confirmed that its sonnet contest will be held again this year. No new website is currently up, but last year’s site states here, “This...

The Best Poems of 2019: Winners of 8th Annual International SCP Poetry Competition Thank you to everyone who participated! It was an epic year with an incredible number of exceptional poets contributing their talents. As we've said before, everyone who takes part in this competition, which is reviving the precious...

Thank you to every one who participated! The quality of the high school poems submitted this year was stunning.    First Place ($100 Prize): Luke Hahn, twelfth grade, homeschooled in Waupun, Wisconsin "Victus" "To a Murdered World" Second Place: Erin Jeon, tenth grade, University High School, Irvine, California "Twilight" Second...

Thank you to everyone who participated! The quality of submitted translations continues to rise.   First Place ($100 Prize): Margaret Coats, California Three Translations of the Poetry of Jean Froissart Second Place: Terry L. Norton, South Carolina Five Translations of Aesop’s Fables, from Phaedrus Third Place: Anna Leader, Washington, D.C....

The above photographs were taken and submitted by New York City poet Joe Tessitore. We invite readers to pick one of the images (or both) and write a poem. Post your poem in the comments section below.    

Fight for Freedom. Write for Freedom. A Great Cause, Plus Over $1,200 in Prizes and No Submission Fee. Today, the communist government of China, the world's largest nation, is attacking the basic freedom of thought and belief that have been a cornerstone of human civilization throughout history. As China's influence...

The above photographs were taken and submitted by New York City poet Joe Tessitore. We invite readers to pick one of the images (or both) and write a poem. Post your poem in the comments section below.    

by Joe Tessitore and James A. Tweedie We are issuing a challenge to all poets to create poems that incorporate word homophones. Call it what you like, but we are calling it a Homophonic Poetry Challenge. Every poem should contain at least one perfect or near-perfect homophone. Puns, while not...

Winners of the competition can be found here. "But with the true poet every thing is terse, touching, or brilliant. He gives the choicest thoughts in the choicest language. He illustrates them by everything that he sees most striking in nature and art." —Washington Irving (1783-1859), "Mutability of Literature" First...

"But with the true poet every thing is terse, touching, or brilliant. He gives the choicest thoughts in the choicest language. He illustrates them by everything that he sees most striking in nature and art." —Washington Irving (1783-1859), "Mutability of Literature" First Prize: $100. Publication on the Society's website and...

  Note: Winners of this contest can be found here. We have begun a new high school poetry contest here. "But with the true poet every thing is terse, touching, or brilliant. He gives the choicest thoughts in the choicest language. He illustrates them by everything that he sees most...

Thank you to everyone who participated! Judges: Joseph S. Salemi, Adam Sedia, Manfred Dietrich   First ($100 Prize) A spike is there, but it’s not gold, Some forests have them, so I’m told. They cannot cough, but can “ahem,” And singers have an eye for them. And when someone pokes...

Winners of the contest can be found here. From the riddle posed by King Solomon to the Philistines to the philosophy of riddles put forth by Aristotle to the riddles posed by Gollum to Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit, riddles have a long and rich history and have often been...

Judges: Michael Curtis, Amy Foreman, Reid McGrath, Adam Sedia A few words from Judge Michael Curtis: In apology: If you, fair writer, did not win, take heart, This juror read for craft more than for art, And we both know that art can be subjective, So, tend your craft, in...

Congratulations to contest winners David Whippman (First Place), Randal Burd (Second Place), Theresa Rodriguez (Third Place), and Dusty Thorne (Fourth Place). Mr. Whippman's winning poem is below. Other poems may be read here.   For Falun Gong by David Whippman Their plight is real, their cause is ours. So far,...

Winners announced here! Write a short poem that begins with one line from any Shakespeare play or poem. The poem should be two to four lines in length. Post it in the comments section below under your full name and general area of residence (“Bob Smith, Denver, Colorado”). Two entries...

Thank you to everyone who participated! We have had more quality submissions this year than in any past year and it has been a privilege to read and judge them. Congratulations to the winners! First Place ($1,000 Prize): Adam Sedia, Indiana "Arise, You Bones" "To Xi" "Let None Dare Call...

  “Let glorious acts more glorious acts inspire, And catch from breast to breast the noble fire!" —The Iliad, Homer, Book V, Pope translation First Prize: $1,000   Submission Fee: None   Submit: One to three poems. All together, the poems should total 108 lines or less. The poems should...

Thank you to everyone who participated and made this a great year for rhyming riddles! —Evan Mantyk, Judge First Place ($100): Monty Phillips, France I’ve never been exactly sure How long I’ve been on this old earth; It sometimes seems it’s not much less Than Man himself has held tenure....

Winners announced here. Scroll down and read the comments section to enjoy all of the submissions. What has no subject one can tell, Yet tries to make it ring a bell? What makes you scratch your head and think, “How does this blather even link?” RULES: Write a rhyming riddle...

Congratulations to the following winners! Thank you to judges Joseph S. Salemi, James Sale, and Damian Robin.   First Place $100 Prize: Ben Foreman, Cascabel, Arizona Cheesemaking Find a way To weigh The whey.   Second Place: James B. Nicola, New York, New York Trip of a Lifetime The place within. Shall...

Update: Winners announced: https://staging.classicalpoets.org/shortest-poem-contest-winners-announced/\ Scroll down and read the comments section to enjoy all of the submissions. Write the shortest possible rhyming poem that still has meaning. Post it in the comments section below under your full name and general area of residence ("Bob Smith, Denver, Colorado"). You may choose any...

By Amy Foreman A cold and rainy afternoon recently gave rise to this little idea of a poem-puzzle.  I challenged myself to write a poem where each word started with a different letter of the alphabet, in order, from A to Z.  I allowed myself up to three extra words...

First Place ($500 Prize): C.B. Anderson, Massachusetts “Stonewalls Sometimes a Prison Make” “Praise for the Mother of Summer” “Meritocracy” "Verification" Second Place: Adam Sedia, Indiana “At Lincoln’s Tomb” “Vision” “Untitled” Third Place: Fr. Richard Libby, Texas “Made in China” (publication forthcoming) “When All the World Seems New” “You See Me...

Submit three to five poems, each of which does not exceed 50 lines. Email as a word file or in the email body to submissions@classicalpoets.org. Put “Poetry Competition Submission” in the subject line of the email. There is no submission fee, no age requirement, and no country restriction. For the high school prize, only...

Thank you to everyone who participated! Judges Dusty Grein, Michael Curtis, and Damian Robin have selected the below winners for the first Rhyming Riddle Contest. Judge Curtis said meter was important: "Poets may pun, and poets may rhyme, Poets may riddle, yet must keep the time." Judge Grein said he...

RULES: A riddle for your thoughts? Write a rhyming riddle, any length and paste it in the comments section below with your name and area of residence. Do not include the answer. Let people guess and then respond at your discretion. One submission per contestant. Submissions should be originally written just...

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Funny Food Poetry Contest, including Judges Michael Curtis, Lorna Davis, William Ruleman, James Sale, and Bruce Dale Wise. We had quite a number of people serendipitously break the 14-line limit rule and thus created an entire category for them, which you will...

ADULT AWARDS   1st Place – $500 Josh Lefkowitz, “A Poem of Fact” 2nd Place – $250 Kathleen Hellen, “Everyday Halloween” 3rd Place – $150 Lorna Davis, “Buyer’s Remorse” 4th Place – $100 Alexandra Umlas, “Falun Gong” 5th Place– $75 A.R. Harmon, “Welcome Tree”   Honorable Mentions | Adult   George Ian...

RULES: A reprieve from heavy subject matter, we ask poets to write a funny poem (2-14 lines) that includes food. You may choose to replace words in a popular song with food or use food in any other way you like, as long as it isn’t inappropriate. Paste your contest submission...

First Prize ($500): James Sale, Bournemouth, United Kingdom “In Telling This Story” “Obi-Wan Bin Laden RIP” “Imitating Shakespeare’s Sonnet 107” Second Prize: Lorna Davis, California “Buyer’s Remorse” “At the Gates of Heaven” “The Garden Guest” Third Prize: C.B. Anderson, Massachusetts "Water Music" "Heaven and Nature Sing" "Taqqiya"  Honorable Mention Courtney Dowe,...

Submission Instructions Submit three to five poems, each of which does not exceed 50 lines. Email as a word file or in the email body to submissions@classicalpoets.org. Put “Poetry Competition Submission” in the subject line of the email. There is no submission fee or age requirement. Include a brief bio...

Write a quatrain (four-line poem) on the topic of America. Post your submissions into the comments section below with your general location, such as city and state. When: From now (June 30) until July 24 midnight. Winner announced August 1. What: A quatrain (four-line poem) on anything within the broad...

  Winners   Conformists of a feather flock together. Michael R. Burch, Nashville, Tennessee   The u of solitude allays the y of lonely. The i in if precedes the o in only. Michael Harmon, Scottsdale, Arizona   Runners Up   I sympathize truly my dear, But as you see,...

Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who participated. There were many hundreds of submitted poems and many good works and poets who had to be left out. Thank you! ***Winners should email their mailing addresses to submissions@classicalpoets.org to receive their prizes.   First Prize ($500): Ron L. Hodges, Garden...