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 Grove, Orange County, California
“One (1979)” “The Last Column” “Angels & Apes” “Ode on a Children’s Cemetery” Part 6.
Second Prize (Free Journal): Bruce Dale Wise, Naselle, Pacific County, Washington
“Lines Composed on Salmon Creek, May 25, 2015” “The Marriage of Two Souls” “Abuse of Falun Dafa” “Dharma Wheel (Falun)”
Third Prize (Free Journal): Daniel Magdalen, Bucharest, Romania
“The Stairway” “Toward the Dawn of Truth” “Meditating at Night”
Fourth Prize (Free Journal): Dusty Grein, Newburgh, Oregon
“The Red Empire” “Ode to a Soldier’s Wife”
Essay Prize (Free Journal): James Sale, Bournemouth, England
“The Poet as Maker”
Honorable Mentions
Elizabeth Spencer Spragins, North Carolina
“Tiananmen Square” “Sedona”
Basil Fillis, South Africa
“Counterfeit Martyrdom” “Curse of Gangsterism” “Have Regard for Those Who Sleep”
Ann Keith
“The Inward Light” “Sonnet on Discernment” “Dawn on the Shore”
Hudson Valley Poetry Prize ($100): Reid McGrath, Ulster County, New York
“The Organ Harvester”; “Creativity Requires a Cave”
“Offensive Defense; Or, Watching a Guy Playing Ping-Pong”
Hudson Valley Poetry Prize Honorable Mentions
Karen Gersch, Orange County, New York
“Night’s Nuclear Poetry”
E.P. Fisher, Sullivan County, New York
“Hints from the Moon (Monday)” “Touching Bottom”
High School Prize (Free Journal): Matthew Walton, 10th grade, Shoreline, Washington
“Freedom of Winter Hills” “Laments of the Oppressed”
High School Prize Honorable Mentions
Jarrett Mohn, 11th grade, Kutztown Area High School in Kutztown, PA
“Riverside” “Persecution of the Wiser”
Antoinette Foliart, 11th grade, 11 at West Geauga High School which is located in Chesterland, OH
“Squinters” “Buddhist Yoga”
Featured Image: Ptolemy II Philadelphus is shown conversing with scholars in the library of Alexandria in this 1813 work by the Italian neo-classicist painter Vincenzo Camuccini (1771-1844).
Well done everyone and a special thanks to Evan who has done so much to promote what he calls ‘classical’ poetry, which is a great title, but which I think of as ‘true’ poetry. Form is poetry and without form we simply have solipsism, self-indulgence and the ego posturing, usually in sociological mode. So this is a vital forum and we need to make its work more widely known.
Yes, congratulations everybody. I have just reread Hodges’ and Magdalen’s poems and I must have been sleeping when they were published. Much deserved First and Third Place showings! I also agree with James about our Editor: Someone should write Evan a eulogy.
Impromptu:
There was a young editor called Mantyk,
By general consent thought fantastic:
Most poetry was farcical;
He turned it classical,
An achievement not one bit pedantic.
Perhaps an ode rather than a eulogy is in order! 😉 James, I completely agree with your view on poetry and your praise for Evan. And I am honored to be selected for first place from among the many superlative poets who have written such skillful, meaningful poems throughout the year.
Congratulations to all the winners!
I’m very glad to have found this forum. Thank you Mr. Mantyk.
Thanks so much for a mentionable honorable mention.
Congratulations to the winners!
South Africa will get there, mark my words!