Contests

Letting Go of the Landline   My newlywed number is finally gone after thirty-three years, along with my name in the white pages. Everything I have to say bounces from tower to tower no longer tied down by cable, hooked to a house, or nosing under the hard ground. If your paper address book holds […]

I Sit Astride the Globe   A journey in the terrain of a dragon— highway tunnels, one conceives another， the contour of my birth place.   I gauge my homesickness while twirling the crimson peppercorns with the tip of my tongue. They numb me.   Outside the abandoned woods, sculptured in the silence of the

Rest & Recuperation, 1970   Ninety days before the beach, Honey Peach Tomato started leg lifts and vinyl thighs. She bought boxes of blondness, a stiff coil to press between her palms for bikini pecs, a suitcase. She knew herself gorgeous. In this fierce contest, Angel Babe Fox would outfox fried chicken and jasmine, out-dazzle

Honorable mentions: 1st Honorable Mention: “Knots” by David Southward, Milwaukee, WI 2nd Honorable Mention: “How we know” by Lois Leveen, Portland, OR 3rd Honorable Mention: “In Rome” by Don Hogle, New York, NY 4th Honorable Mention: “Mr. Stagmeyer’s Typing Class” by Jay Schroder, Medford, OR       Judge’s comments I found judging the Poet’s

We tried to do it all—   To live in a rustic log cabin four miles from the nearest neighbor at the end of a road we had to maintain ourselves. It is one of the loveliest spots in the county outside of the Wilderness. We spent our 2-week honeymoon there, and then the rest

In Defense of Loneliness “You’re wondering if I’m lonely”:                                     after Adrienne Rich   Are you asking about this second when the blue between clouds is so spare I could be imagining it, not the blue but the loneliness, the space between what’s missing and what’s there.   Not what’s there, really, but more the

Don’t Bother the Flowers   When grandma told me to stop buying her flowers I didn’t know what to do with the daffodils I was holding in my hand. Should I throw them in the garbage disposal, or put them in a vase? I started worrying about flowers withering, stalks drooping, shriveled leaves, and dried

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