WELCOME, FRIENDS, TO POETRY CONTEST III.
Much thanks and supercalifragilistic blessings to all the expialidocious peeps who entered and judged Poetry Contest II.
Here we are now at Poetry Contest III. The Poetry Contest series is now a trilogy, and there are tears in my eyes. And I shall celebrate by eating a chocolate chip cookie.
Anyway, I came up with this prompt while I was outside on a cool July summer day, gazing up into the gold-green canopy of leaves above me and talking to my good friend the Voice Memos app. I’m incredibly excited to see what it inspires. I know that you shall not disappoint.
If you’re here to enter the contest, or simply here to enjoy it, welcome. We’re glad to have you with us.
The poem you submit should be inspired by this month’s prompt:
Your poem should be about the glory of living audaciously. It should be about living with courage and refusing to allow the pressures of the soul and the hardness of the world to keep you in a box. It should be about living a life so fully and so fearlessly that the cause of death is living.
Think of a coal-miner with the courage to whistle in the dark. Think of the schoolgirl living life to the fullest without being afraid of not fitting in. Think of the lover who dies to save his beloved from death. Think of the war hero. Think of the martyr.
Please note: it is not necessary or encouraged that you include the phrase "memento vivere" in your poem, either in the stanzas or in your title. The important thing is to get the idea the word evokes across.
Make sure you write your poem in conformity to the Three Rules:
Thou shalt make the poem rhythm and rhyme. It is not enough that the poem merely rhymes. It must also have a recognizable rhythm when read out loud. Examples of poetry that both rhymes and rhythms well are “Noel” by J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Wreck of the Hesperus” by H. W. Longfellow, and “The Ballad of the White Horse” by G. K. Chesterton.
Thou shalt make the poem imaginative and beautiful. The poem must use beautiful and imaginative language! For example, we want the same kind of language that describes the moon as a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, stars as silver sky-fish swimming in a sea of darkness, and grassy lawns as worlds of adventure to explore, if only you were the size of an acorn.
Thou shalt make the poem’s meaning easy to understand. The poem needs to not be difficult to understand for the average person. Make sure when you write it that it is something that most people would be able to appreciate.
Only dust my father left me, and from dust I lifted high
All those fabled topless towers which gleamed bright against the sky.—Drew Cody, “Priam”
Yet through the ache of ashen fields and through the autumn air
there moves melodic music now more tender than despair
that seems to hold old melodies my anguish cannot keep
like silent stars awakening above a world asleep.—Johannes W H van der Bijl, “Beyond Yesterday”
My eyes were born as skylarks,
always looking high,
scribbling constellations
across the open sky.They thought the dark was paper
God folded up at dawn,
and every star a fingerprint
He pressed His name upon.—Meditations for Motherhood, “Wonder Lost”
We will have 3 winners and 3 honorable mentions.
Our 1st place winner will win $120.
Our 2nd place winner will win $85.
And our 3rd place winner will win $60.
The winning and honorably mentioned pieces and every contestant’s name will be featured in a non-paywalled winners announcement post to our 1.5K+ subscribers, published at the end of the contest.
We’re limiting the number of submissions we will accept to 49, so that your chance of winning or having your work featured is around 12%!
These are the people you need to impress in order to win this contest!
Me, the infamous Josh Clingman, terror of the high seas, and purveyor of poetry and fake mustaches.
Hatty, the first place winner of Poetry Contest II. Her winning piece was “Fester” and it was so darn beautiful I almost wanted to cry. It is an absolutely stunning piece that alliterates, rhymes, and rhythms perfectly. My personal favorite couple lines from her poem? “Remember,” mutters gnarled November, / “the sunlit kiss of sweet September.”
Jeremy Tam, the second place winner of Poetry Contest II and honorably mentioned in Poetry Contest I. Jeremy’s piece was called “everlast” (which is such a lovely name!) and my favorite lines from his poem were: fountain of fragrance, fresh hair, skin, and lips / savor pure sweet-scented kiss / wealthy wisp waterfalls drying to drips / an oasis-parched hist’ry to miss.
Quinn M. Fox, the third place winner of Poetry Contest II! Quinn’s poem is called “The Land of In Between,” and my favorite line in this poem uses the word “mere” which is so darn lovely. No one other than Mr. Fox and Professor Tolkien uses this word, and it genuinely upsets me. Still, when ev’ning darkness falls, / Across the silent mere, / I hear the plovers mournful calls, / And wish that she were here.
林 Vanya Evangeline, 1st honorably mentioned individual in Poetry Contest II. Vanya is an absolute talent and I admire not only her poetry, but her essays as well. Her poem was called “When the Sky Falls” and I really loved the first verse of her poem: When shaded sky becloaked the day / And night closed in on Heaven’s ray / The Sun withdrew her lambent gaze / And light rescinds from Luna’s face.
Alexander Birch, 2nd honorably mentioned individual in Poetry Contest II, and my favorite Canadian. (He is also a Poetry Contest veteran, having helped man the judging ship in Poetry Contest I!) His poem was called “Beneath Disrobéd Skies,” and my favorite lines from it are: Heavy are nights in which I lie / bare beneath disrobéd skies, / where breathe the stars the songs of kings / but solace, not their comp’ny brings.
Last but not least, we have Mr. Zane Paxton, who was too busy to join us during Poetry Contest II. We of course forgive him for his tardygaitdedness and are grateful to have him with us, because he is a talent. My favorite poem by him is called “A Plum for a Thumb.” It is about a boy named Arthur Crumb, who has a thumb, which he sucks into a plum: Arthur Crumb sucked his thumb, until he sucked it numb. / And when he stopped to take a look, his thumb had turned a plum. Check it out. You will laugh, and you will not regret it.
Entering this contest is an incredibly simple 2-step process: first, write your lovely poem. Second, click the button below and fill out the quick form!
Please note that we charge an entry fee of $10 for each entry to everyone except our beloved paid subscribers. We do this because we need money to give money to our winning contestants, and if we do not get money to give money, we will not have any money to give.
Hopefully that is clear as mud.
Anyway, make certain you submit your poem as soon as possible before August 5th, 2026 AD, because submissions close then or when we reach 49 entries, whichever comes first.
Remember how I mentioned 4 paragraphs ago that if you’re a beloved paid subscriber, you won’t have to pay the entry fee?
The good news is that you can become one.
We have turned on paid subscriptions for All Words Bright & Beautiful. And we’re running a sale you totally didn’t ask for.
Usually, a paid subscription is $8/mo., but today, the first 25 peeps to sign up for a paid subscription will get 75% off. The next 25 peeps will get 65% off. The next 25 peeps will get 55% off. And so on and so forth.
That means that if you sign up immediately (the instant you read these words), you may be able to get a paid subscription for as little as $2/mo.
And if you do, not only will you be allowed to submit as many entries to the contest as you like, you will also get access to these exclusive perks that are amazing and phenomenal:
50 Entries into Monthly Giveaways (instead of 1). When you don’t win (which will probably be most of the time), you’ll get a FREE beautiful mobile wallpaper. If you pledged a paid subscription to All Words Bright & Beautiful, you get 100 entries because we love you more than everyone else.
Weekly Poetry Engagement Group. Once we exceed 100 paid subs, we’ll begin a biweekly poetry engagement group in which you can post your poetry and have other poets (and poetry enthusiasts) engage with your work.
Paid Exclusive Articles. Every month, you will be sent one beautiful paid-exclusive word-essay or poem, written with tears, chocolate chip cookie crumbs, and love, just for you.
Access to the entire Archive. While you’ll have complete and total access to the entire archive at any time, once a month, you’ll be sent one poem or word-essay from the times before, dusted off and brought into the sunlight for your enjoyment.
Monthly Paid Subscriber Spotlight. Every month, (by approved application) we’re going to spotlight one of our paid subscribers’ work, because we know a lot of you make things of grace and beauty that must be spotlighted or the world will die of heartbreak.
FREE, Beautiful Bookmarks Every Christmas. You will love them, and they will feature beautiful rare words like “sehnsucht” and “eucatastrophe” which you’ve probably never heard of before and whose meanings will change your life forever and ever.
So repent of your freebie ways, my friend. Subscribe to the Gospel of Poetry Contest III, and sign up for a paid subscription.
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