Adult Contest Winners

OPA congratulates all the winners below, and thanks them and all the poets who entered for sharing their work.   Poet’s Choice — Joe Wilkins, Judge 1st Place: “Don’t Bother the Flowers” by Sherri Levine, Portland, OR 2nd Place: “In Defense of Loneliness” by Donna Prinzmetal, Portland, OR 3rd Place: “We tried to do it […]

Poet’s Choice Screener, Carolyne Wright ; Final Judge, Ellen Bass First place winner: “Calling the Wolves of Chernobyl”  — Charlotte Abernathy – Ashland, Oregon Judge’s Comment: This is an ambitious poem. The poet uses scale especially well, showing us the great devastation of Chernobyl, the particular suffering of the wolves, and her/himself in a little

OPA FALL 2016 CONTEST RESULTS   Categories & Judges Poet’s Choice — Scot Siegel Members Only — Kelly Eastlund Traditional Form, Pantoum — Cecelia Hagen Themed Narrative — Laura LeHew Open Form — Austin Gray Oregon/Pacific Northwest — Rodger Moody New Poets — Quinton Hallett   POET’S CHOICE JUDGE: SCOT SIEGEL   WINNERS   FIRST

Poet’s Choice judged by Vince Wixon Poet’s Choice 1st Place Ruth F. Harrison “On the Possibility of Action” Poet’s Choice 2nd Place Leah Stenson “Untitled” Poet’s Choice 3rd Place Jennifer Dorner “Leaving India” Poet’s Choice 1st Honorable Mention David Pickering “Frequency” Poet’s Choice 2nd Honorable Mention Nancy Flynn “Watts Towering” Poet’s Choice 3rd Honorable Mention

vincePoet’s Choice. Judge: Karen McPherson 1st Place: “The Good Nurse”  by Nancy Carol Moody, Eugene 2nd  Place: “Cryopediology” by Marian Shapiro, Lexington, Massachusetts 3rd Place: “the wonder and terrible” by Liz Robinson, Phoenix Honorable Mentions: “Among the Things You deserve” by Emily Ransdell “Live Music” by Dan Kaufman, Central Point “Central” by Marjorie Power, Denver, Colorado I

Fences were meant to climb over and woods dense with underbrush and muck our domain. We hacked through prickly bushes, trampled long grass, collected burrs on our clothes and in our hair, clear cut canopies to lay bare the soft earth, and sat for hours stripping bark to carve the skin that lay beneath. When

Snow on Western Hemlock Forest A corps de ballet, wearing Yesterday’s snowfall, branches Sway, curving down, Fingers dripping icy water Under bright mid-day sun, Heads tilted on drooping Necks; they dance more Slowly in dawn mist and With abandon in moonlight.   Penny Hetherington: One late April day driving past a Western Hemlock grove on

Out West   It was your silence that turned me Out and away from the hollowness Resounding through this empty place We sometimes felt was home. Along the beach road, walking away, I know one bird on the wire Is less alone than two Perched yards apart. A silent sea stack divides the Pacific On

Leaving Bones Upon the Sand   He could not stay away from the beacon house. The turret of light pulled him, flopping up the beach, gills drowning in the air. There was no desire but the primitive need to satisfy curiosity about the creature that looked out to sea, then back to land, with a