Thank you to everyone who participated! We have had more quality submissions this year than in any past year and it has been a privilege to read and judge them. Congratulations to the winners!
First Place ($1,000 Prize): Adam Sedia, Indiana
“Arise, You Bones” “To Xi” “Let None Dare Call It Beauty”
Second Place: Joseph Charles MacKenzie, New Mexico
“To Nicholas Wilton” “Letter to England (For Tommy Robinson)” “Ode to the Great Highland Pipes”
Second Place: Amy Foreman, Arizona
“Let’s Take the Other Bus” “Time for the B.S.: Susie and Johnny Go to College”
Third Place: James A. Tweedie, Washington State
“The Cost of Higher Education” “Of Roland and of Kings” “The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World And What Became of One of Them”
Third Place: Sally Cook, New York
“Star Needles” “One Day In May” “How My Scientific Bent Got Broken”
Third Place: Joe Tessitore, New York
“Subversive Rhyme” “The Ballerina” “The Dance of Life”
Fourth Place: Daniel Leach, Texas
“The Snowflake” “It… “ “Ode to Spring Mourning”*
Fourth Place: Charlie Bauer, North Carolina
“Weaknesses” “Statues” “A Question of Faith”
Fourth Place: Annabelle Fuller, England
“The Architect”
Honorable Mention
Jeffrey Essmann, New York: “The Birth of Beauty” “Like Wordsworth’s Humble Nun” “This Sonnet Has Been Funded by the State”
Peter Hartley, England: “The Fate of Fine Art” “The Dark Ages” “Poetry Today”
Dusty Grein, Northwest USA: “An Open Letter to the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden”
Martin Rizley, Spain: “The Pale Rider Comes”* “American Apocalypse”*
Translation
First Place ($100 Prize): Martin Hill Ortiz, Puerto Rico
“Farewell to the Royal Gardens at Aranjuez” by María Rosa Gálvez de Cabrera*
Second Place: David Gosselin, Quebec, Canada
“The Feast of Belshazzar” by Heinrich Heine*
Second Place: Michael Coy, Spain
“The Lake” by Alphonse Lamartine
Third Place: Charles Eager, England
“Du Bist Mein” by Anonymous; “The Golden Sun” by Georg Weerth; “An Elegy for His Brother” by Cattallus (Carmen VI
Third Place: Jarek Zawadzki
“Snow in Spring” by Han Yu
Third Place: Luigi Pagano
“Alla Sera” by Ugo Foscolo
High School
Click here for all of the High School winners’ poems.
First Place ($100 Prize): Victor Tyne, St. Peter’s Preparatory School, Jersey City, New Jersey
“In Memory of Romeo and Juliet”
Second Place: Rhea Mitr, Quarry Lane School, Dublin, California
“My Somber Saunter”
Third Place: Kaley Henyon, Linganore High School, Frederick, Maryland
“The Forest”
Third Place: Jacyln Kennedy, Cactus Shadows High School in Cave Creek, Arizona
“Creed of Communism”
Judges
Joseph S. Salemi, editor of Trinacria, acclaimed poet, professor, New York University, Hunter College
Evan Mantyk, editor of The Society of Classical Poets Journal and website, high school teacher
*Indicates not published and may be published in the future.
Congratulations to all the winners! Your valued contributions make the Society of Classical Poets awesome!
Many thanks, E. V., for your appreciation and support!
Yes, congratulations to all – a fabulous achievement and some wonderful poetry here. It does the heart and soul good to see and read it all. Thank you so much for so much inspiration. Hope to see many of you in June at the SCP event in NY – I shall be there, God willing! It’s going to be a humdinger!
James, I have not heard about the SCP event in June. How does one learn about it?
As the outlying maverick and underdog in this competition, I would like to thank the Society of Classical Poets, on behalf of my many friends, colleagues, and fans in Britain, for the awareness raised by the singular honor which has been given to the “Letter to England: For Tommy Robinson.”
For my fellow freedom-fighters in the Brexit movement—especially in Leeds, Lancashire, and Scotland—this is especially meaningful, as the poem also celebrates the valiant people of Britain to whom we American poets owe an incalculable literary debt.
My thanks go out also to Lord Pearson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and the man of the hour himself, Tommy Robinson, whose sacrifice and sufferings for others inspired me to compose the “Letter to England” on the very day of his unjustified arrest.
Thank you for penning this beautiful poem! You have just verbalised how I (a Brit) feel about my country and Tommy Robinson!
Hi Sally-
Are you a Brexit supporter as well?
Dear Sally,
You are very kind indeed to have commented. There is a certain way in which the great voices of freedom history has produced from age to age are universal.
And your love of Britain is shared the world over.
May God bless you and all those around you!
Joseph Charles MacKenzie
Many thanks, Mr. Sale, and may you be warmly welcomed here in the States!
My congratulations to all of the winners!
Congratulations to all of the winners! There is a great depth of talent within the SCP.
I would like to thank the judges for the time, talent, wisdom, and discernment spent in sorting through so many excellent submissions. Many of the mentioned poems are so etched in memory that I do not even need to look them up to recall the impact they had on me when I first read them! This, I believe, reflects well on the SCP in general and on Evan Mantyk in particular.
Many thanks indeed for the award of Third Prize for my humble translations. I am delighted to be in such wonderful company: the quality of the poetry already published from the winners’ entries is truly impressive and inspiring!