2023 “National Poetry Month” Poetry Contest Winners
Hey li Squad! Thanks to everyone who entered and shared their heart in our poetry contest – National Poetry Month.
Theme: What does Poetry for Life™ mean to you?
Fans voted, and three winners were chosen! Check out the winners’ romantic verse.
1st Place Poetry Contest Winner – Alexandra Manion
A Writer Through and Through
“You write too much.” Thank you.
This is one of my proudest achievements — my luminous trophy of humanity.
My city of words houses my identity of resounding redemption, after far too many years of quiet compunction.
My city never sleeps — chasing passion and freedom at every curve and corner.
Follow the rays of sunlight and you will find me at the end of the most vibrant rainbow or follow the incandescent glow of the moonlight and you will find me floating upon the dreamiest clouds — always equipped with a mighty pen and a beautiful journal.
Erase my work from these communities and I am still a writer — blue and true.
Far too many people don’t write enough; say enough; love enough.
When you get all of me in art, writing and speech, you get the the wholeness of my heart, rather than merely a stroll through surface-level art.
We unearth the meaning of finding and creating together.
My only wish is that these words of mine reach across pages and screens and wrap you up in a cathartic embrace, conveying just how exquisitely loved and bright you are.
We all show love differently and we all need love differently.
Writing is my everything. What is your everything? And what are your needs? Be the love you need.
Speak love when you feel love; be love when you can’t find love.
My “too much-ness” to them is “I needed that” to you.
Surpassing the quota of character and word limits is everyday life to me, although it may not be your normal, but this doesn’t make it abnormal; it just makes us different.
Ever heard, “Different is beautiful”?
My “too much-ness” comes to me like breathing — I inhale love to exhale love.
We are united together in this forest of tangling weeds and flowers abloom — both for me and for you; we need each other.
My words are my deepest confessions of authenticity and hope.
I am what I love, who I love and how I love.
2nd Place Poetry Contest Winner – Alisha D. Redmond
The Art Of Spun Words
Words are like spiderwebs.
weaving intricate puzzles of shiny sticky thread.
Sticking to your emotions and erupting them from your body.
Each web is unique and precious.
It reveals the soul in ways conversation can not compete.
Unraveling its threads in each verse.
Showing imagery that only the author truly knows.
But the story becomes everyone’s once written down.
An art of emotion.
Words are placed in such a way,
evoking feelings from the hardest heart.
Weaving a passionate web of interpretation.
Poetry excites the world with sadness and relief.
A way to touch the soul with individual intensity.
With raw vulnerability.
Spinning silk into works of art
Just words strung together, like a web.
A beautiful web connecting our hearts to our words
Weaving our souls together, like a spiderweb
3rd Place Poetry Contest Winner – Alana Ribaudo
There is power in words.
They move through my blood,
they rest in my bones,
they live on my breath,
their weight like stones.
This prose, this poetry, it fills me with joy,
It brings forth the feelings I bury inside,
Poetry is freedom, expression and hope,
and bringing the reader along for the ride.
Poetry for life means a space for art,
for writers and readers a place to start.
Poetry for life means truth in words,
to whisper our dreams, carried by birds.
For the love of words and feeling of peace,
poetry means happiness, and sweet release.
Feeling inspired to write new poetry?
Find our current poetry contests here.
Check out our previous poetry contest winners.
