What to Submit?
Literally yesterday, a 16-year-old boy from my bus this past school year passed away. He was a low-functioning nonverbal autistic kid. Despite many health challenges such as pneumonia, which delayed his back surgery because his spine was crushing his lungs, tummy, digestive organs, etc., HE HAD A 1000 WATT SMILE.
Your challenge is to write about someone you know who has a 1,000-watt smile. Hopefully, the person you know with said smile is still alive. It could be a memorandum of a loved one, or, as I said, hopefully, the person you choose is alive.
This poem should be no longer than 12 lines long, and maybe that can look like 3 stanzas that are 4 lines each. Of course, if it looks different, that is NOT A DISQUALIFIER.
AS PER MY USUAL RULES.
- Nothing political or politically adjacent!
- 12 lines is a hard max.
- This should be pretty easy to read. I don't want to do a deep linguistic dive to understand your chosen words.
- New or old poems, if the old ones fit (but the title also has to fit).
- Any title you want.
- Stay on subject.
1 original, poem on the theme of .............
Any form is acceptable.
Prizes
First Prize, Glory
Second Prize, Glory
Third Prize, Glory
Twelve Honorable Mentions
Preparing Your Entry
Submit one copy of your poem online. Format your poem. Please make your entry easy to read — no illustrations or fancy fonts.
English Language
Poems should be in English. Poems translated from other languages are not eligible, unless you wrote both the original poem and the translation.
A Note to Poetry Contestants
You are welcome to enter this contest, whether or not you won a prize in one of my previous contests.