Contests

Impending Water Shortage: Facts & Incantations by Khadija Anderson Over 5 billion people could suffer water shortages by 2050 Money washed in clear rain water cannot be stolen   To spill water while carrying it from the spring or brook is an omen of sorrow Global demand for water has increased six-fold over the past […]

Honorable mentions: 1st Honorable Mention: “I Promise to Keep These Promises” by Jennifer Dorner, Klamath Falls, OR 2nd Honorable Mention: “Anthem for the Anthropocene” by Alida Rol, Eugene, OR 3rd Honorable Mention: “Ode to the Worst Air Quality in Two Decades” by Hillary Tully, Eugene, OR Judge’s comments Congratulations to all of the poets who

Slippage by Eleanor Berry Venus of Urbino, Olympia—each successive version slips farther indoors from the mythic landscape where Botticelli’s Venus sleeps. In Hiratsuka’s Breakfast on the Bed, the reclining female is not nude, though she appears so from a distance. Up close, one sees she’s wearing a slip. From outside the frame, a maid comes

For a Distant Friend by Delia Garigan While I’m cracking eggs & heaping plates with food Campers and vans line the roadway, in assembly with you.   A child’s teeth will be opening for the brush When a fox slides out from the scrub, scenting you.   At the crest of the hill the road

Hiraeth from an Oregon beach to a lost island by Amelia Díaz Ettinger I return to the image of a sky that devoured an ocean, and an ocean that splits my ghosts from the living.   Not by cloud or breath can I touch those faces, faded along with their voices, a choice I made

Judge’s comments The ghazal entries arrived on my doorstep while I had the flu. My first reading of these beautiful poems cheered, lifted, and helped heal me—so much wisdom and craft! Such deep feeling and acute intelligence! Because of the high quality of entries, though, selecting the winners and honorable mentions was difficult, requiring many,

Falling Stars by Meli Broderick Eaton right there in the hidden chambers of your heart I was born before I was born where your muscles squeezed with apprehension, where your pulse drummed its anticipation and you knew me before you knew me   when you called for my light to paint a new trail in

Poet bio Peter Schettkoe is a romantic nature writer of everyday suburbia with an awakeness to life surrounding, searching for the pure-heart of humanity that seems elusive these days. In between putting together his second poetry manuscript, Peter can be found posting some works on instagram @words.oh.words.  

All eyes by Linda Golaszewski What imagines happening behind these eyes the ability to regenerate cell after cell core after core spurting a leaf a branch a new found strength the push through the soil rekindles photosynthesis the dark night of the earth  no barrier to the present urge push the way of the seed

Honorable mentions: 1st Honorable Mention: “Freefall” by Lucy Cotter, Portland, OR 2nd Honorable Mention: “Question for Mary Oliver” by Linda Budan, Newberg, OR 3rd Honorable Mention: “Gefilte Fish” by Barry Vitcov, Ashland, OR Judge’s comments The work in the New Poets category was a joy to encounter. As a judge for this category, I was