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Poetry Soup Contests : Add all your views & experiences of Poetry Contests here.

Posted by Ghairo Daniels on 9/3/2025 12:45:29 AM

“Collaboration is a process where two or more individual souls work together to exchange skill sets & create something new & different. It is not a process whereby one Poet, enlist the skills of another Poet, who is obviously more talented, to upgrade her-his poem in order to win a contest or be listed as best poem. This is dishonesty on part of personalities involved. It is much worse than enlisting the aid of AI. It is called artistic corruption which will not aid personal or human evolution.”

©GhairoDanielsQuotes

“Poetry cannot ever become a fully fledged profession if poets play games with integrity, authenticity, honesty and humanity’s agenda of evolution into the Heart Centre, from rampant competition, domination and materialism.”

Contests exist to assist us towards self-validation. When AI, as an algorithm, is involved in contests they become highly suspect in such assistance. Everyone involved in keeping the system of Contest placement in place using artificial intelligence, are involved in fallacy & cannot call themselves poets. Poets, like all other artists, are to advance authenticity & consciousness, not impede it. Competitive life as part of the Dark Ages will therefore be maintained, holding humanity back.

Every judge of artistic art in whatever form assess via their perceptual framework. No human on Earth is free from their framework or we wouldn’t be here. Only the artist him or herself can know the true value of their art as only their own soul knows how to improve it.

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Comment by Brian Strand on 10/6/2025 7:36:43 AM

IN HOUSE Contests (for past 18 years)are a 'fun' aspect here at PS between ' peer' poets...(in this literary club of ours ) poetry (especially if recited aloud to an audience) IMHO is an artform..'of the moment' just like going to an art gallery' ,that's how /why contests appeal to me & why I devote(have devoted) so much time to them

Comment by Brian Strand on 10/6/2025 7:21:18 AM

I have slightly different approach to my standard contests.(still judging 'blind' )but there is no 1-10 placing restrictions..my process /timescale is very similar..HAPPILY Iam able to give multiple podium placements & more than 10 published 'winners'..& is therefore an easier proposition for me as sponsor

Comment by Brian Strand on 10/6/2025 6:43:07 AM

The reason I am able to close my PREMIER contests quickly(albeit subjectively) is I follow TPS guidelines ..I judge as entries are received & decide whether to reserve to round 2 ..when I get to 10 therein I decide whether each new entry 'deserves' to replace one of the 10& do this until 35 is reached...then I goto winners & decide on 1-10 placing..then post results & immediately start a new contest to give the ' 11-35 ' an new opportunity to create .The process currently lasts 3 to 4 days.(depending on the form)...not a quick turnaround at all especially as my current series are all one to five liners..but at end of the day PREMIERS are in evitably more competitive(with all that that entails) but for both types I always judge 'blind' & only know individual poets names when results are published

Comment by Ghairo Daniels on 10/6/2025 4:52:11 AM

THANKYOU for responding, Brian. I appreciate your honesty. I personally have stopped entering your contests because I do not believe an assessor can give due assessment to a poem with such a quick turn around. But I do understand where you are coming from & I DO accept this. Just to add : I recently entered a contest on the last minute (not yours), and within 10mins the results of the contest was posted. To me this seems that the assessor had ALREADY decided on placement, before the contest was closed. This is a highly irregular way of assessment. In fact, with this particular assessor, clear favouritism is involved. I’m stating these irregularities here as I would like new contestants to be aware of the loopholes in the PS contest system before submitting their entries. Blessings your way.

Comment by Brian Strand on 10/6/2025 4:20:45 AM

As a sponsor of over 1400 TPS contests in 18 years I confess the reason for so many has been twofold...it has been my main way of reading poetry here (acting as a filter so to speak of the 100s posted daily) & secondly to encourage creativity of particular forms by judging & turning around results quickly.

Comment by Ghairo Daniels on 9/5/2025 9:58:48 PM

ANOTHER CONTEST TIP FOR THOSE NEWLY ENTERING THE CONTEST SCENE Do not enter contests when you are under stress, overworked, ill or in any grief. Sometimes grief brings out raw emotion that one can use later in a poem or entry, when immediate emotions settle. Most times the darker human emotions experienced as when a close family member passes WILL push you into presenting the work of others as your own, plagiarism, unnecessary use of AI and similar dysfunctional actions. For many, travel aids writing. Some poets however become stressed when travelling, especially when they are super sensitive or extreme empaths. Work out what suits you. For Contest entries however, relaxation is important as is a release for the need to win. Contests, in my view, are for sharpening skills, not for seeing your name at the top end of a list where AI as operational in algorithms play a role. Be blessed. ThkU for reading.

Comment by Ghairo Daniels on 9/4/2025 7:09:06 AM

Contests Collaboration Entries Here are a couple of recommendations regarding contest instruction, based on the fiasco regarding the last trophy win by a first placing of Robert Ligouri’s last contest, whereby the placing did not state it was a “collaboration” at the time of placement. Clearly specify whether collaborative writes are allowed in the same way that it is specified whether AI is allowed or not. When a first placing is made, the placing needs to state whether it was collaborative or not. When the collaboration is by two poets on this platform & it is placed first, both poets need to be awarded the placing “trophy.” When the collaboration is with a poet on another platform, that poet needs to be acknowledged in the contest results. With regard to other podium placements ie. 2nd & 3rd the same would apply. I am making these recommendations to improve the integrity of this site. I THANKYOU if you are taking this seriously.

Poetry Soup Contests : Add all your views & experiences of Poetry Contests here.

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