Contests

1st Honorable Mention: “Full Moons” by Susanne Twight-Alexander, Eugene, OR 2nd Honorable Mention: “The Dandelion’s Rant” by Paul Telles, Beaverton, OR 3rd Honorable Mention: “Finding My Song” by Barbara Blanks, Garland, TX

The Porch in Summer by Lynn Robertson In the deep of heat, sides of laid-out dogs rise shallow-quick, their tongues loll limp, dirt crust fringes their foaming drool. Wasps circle haze, as if they were a crumble of leaves with no whisk of wind to carry them away. Like an old man’s temper a film

Abatement by Suzy Harris Against this hundred-year house, ladders rise up from one story to the next, and the paint is scraped away, bit by bit, exposing raw boards to the bright August sun. Men covered in white suits call back and forth like in a church, call and response. They build a chapel of

Debris by Stephanie Striffler you and I pick our way through tsunami debris    claws of bare tree up-ended    tires   Harley Davidson  soccer ball         the task has fallen to us an ocean away   to fill bags with ragged styrofoam remnants   forever undegradable   oyster farm buoys stamped with undecipherable characters   carried from a disaster more than

1st Honorable Mention: “The Neighbor Brings a Boat Home” by Colette Jonopulos, Denver, CO 2nd Honorable Mention: “Facing the Light” by Jana Carp, Salem, OR 3rd Honorable Mention: “Earth: An Abecedarian Ode” by Alida Rol, Eugene, OR Judge’s comments  Judging poetry is always weighty. We are tasked with selecting one poem over another and ranking

Poet’s Choice — Carl Adamshick, Judge 1st Place: “Tiny Blue Flowers” by Danielle Stricklin, Eugene, OR 2nd Place: “Original Face” by Michael Selker, Portland, OR 3rdPlace: “My Selfie Poem” by Cynthia Jacobi, Newport, OR 1st Honorable Mention: “Barbizon Nightgowns” by Sandra Rokoff-Lizut, McMinnville, OR 2nd Honorable Mention: “Do Not Be Afraid” by Michael Hanner, Eugene,

Judge’s comments I ultimately awarded first place to “Loaded trunk falling down a flight of stairs like choir birds” for its unrelenting imagery and the author’s broad perspective on the theme. —Nancy Carol Moody Poet bio Shari Crane Fox comes from Cherokee, Lakota, Blackfoot and Irish roots. She holds advanced degrees from the University of

Judge’s comments My second-place choice, “Assemblage. The Anthropocene,” successfully employs the device of a visual artwork (the assemblage of the title) to imagine a geographical reality in urgently enjambed and insistent language. —Nancy Carol Moody Poet bio Michael G. Smith’s poetry has been published in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, Crannóg, Labletter, Nimrod,